English

A compact high-flux source of cold sodium atoms

Quantum Gases 2013-06-12 v1 Atomic Physics

Abstract

We present a compact source of cold sodium atoms suitable for the production of quantum degenerate gases and versatile for a multi-species experiment. The magnetic field produced by permanent magnets allows to simultaneously realize a Zeeman slower and a two-dimensional MOT within an order of magnitude smaller length than standard sodium sources. We achieve an atomic flux exceeding 4x10^9 atoms/s loaded in a MOT, with a most probable longitudinal velocity of 20 m/s, and a brightness larger than 2.5x10^(12) atoms/s/sr. This atomic source allowed us to produce a pure BEC with more than 10^7 atoms and a background pressure limited lifetime of 5 minutes.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1301.6566,
  title  = {A compact high-flux source of cold sodium atoms},
  author = {G. Lamporesi and S. Donadello and S. Serafini and G. Ferrari},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1301.6566},
  year   = {2013}
}

Comments

8 pages, 6 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev. A