Red- and blue-detuned magneto-optical trapping with liquid crystal variable retarders
Abstract
We exploit red- and blue-detuned magneto optical trapping (MOT) of Rb benefitting from a simplified setup based on liquid crystal variable retarders (LCVR). To maintain the trapping forces when switching from a red- to a blue-detuned MOT, the circularity of the cooling beams needs to be reversed. LCVRs allow fast polarization control and represent compact, simple and cost-efficient components which can easily be implemented in existing laser systems. This way, we achieve a blue-detuned type-II MOT for Rb atoms with sub-Doppler temperatures of 44.5 K. The phase space density is increased by more than two orders of magnitude compared to the standard red-detuned type-I MOT. The setup can readily be transferred to any other system working with Rb.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2109.14277,
title = {Red- and blue-detuned magneto-optical trapping with liquid crystal variable retarders},
author = {Baptist Piest and Vera Vollenkemper and Jonas Böhm and Alexander Herbst and Ernst M. Rasel},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2109.14277},
year = {2022}
}