Related papers: Monotonous manipulation of atomic density in an is…
We observe a density-dependent collective suppression of optical pumping between the hyperfine ground states in an array of submicrometer-sized clouds of cold rubidium atoms. The suppressed Raman transition rate can be explained by strong…
We demonstrate enhanced loading of strontium atoms into a magneto-optical trap using a repumping scheme from the metastable state via the doubly-excited state $5\mathrm{s}5\mathrm{p}\,^3\mathrm{P}_2 \rightarrow…
This communication describes the observation of a new type of dark spontaneous-force optical trap (dark SPOT) obtained without the use of a mask blocking the central part of the repumper laser beam. We observe that loading a magneto-optical…
We present recent results on the coherent control of an optical transition in a single rubidium atom, trapped in an optical tweezer. We excite the atom using resonant light pulses that are short (4 ns) compared with the lifetime of the…
We show that an optimized loading of a cold ensemble of rubidium-87 atoms from a magnetic trap into an optical dipole trap sustained by a single, far-red-detuned mode of a high-Q optical cavity can be efficient despite the large volume…
We present a cold atomic beam source based on a two-dimensional (2D)+ magneto-optical trap (MOT), capable of generating a continuous cold beam of 87Rb atoms with a flux up to 4.3*10^9 atoms/s, a mean velocity of 10.96(2.20) m/s, and a…
Reconfigurable arrays of trapped single atoms are an excellent platform for the simulation of many-body physics and the realisation of high-fidelity quantum gates. The confinement of atoms is often achieved with focussed laser beams acting…
We present the experimental realization of a compressible blue detuned crossed dipole trap for cold atoms allowing for fast dynamical compression (~ 5 - 10 ms) of 5x10^7 Rubidium atoms up to densities of ~ 10^13 cm^-3. The dipole trap…
We study a novel repumping transition for $^{88}$Sr atoms trapped in a 'blue' magneto-optical trap. We show that, while the repumping efficiency is about three orders of magnitude smaller than for traditional schemes, it is sufficient for…
We describe an atom trapping mechanism based upon differential optical pumping between metastable hyperfine states by partially-displaced laser beams in the absence of a magnetic field. With realistic laser powers, trap spring constants…
The unusually narrow features in the fluorescence from Rubidium-85 driven by cooling and repumper laser fields, reported in an earlier experiment [1] are explained on the basis of a four-level density matrix calculation. Quantum effects…
The optical properties of randomly positioned, resonant scatterers is a fundamentally difficult problem to address across a wide range of densities and geometries. We investigate it experimentally using a dense cloud of rubidium atoms…
We have added an optical potential to a conventional Time-averaged Orbiting Potential (TOP) trap to create a highly anisotropic hybrid trap for ultracold atoms. Axial confinement is provided by the optical potential; the maximum frequency…
We measure the coherent scattering of low-intensity, near-resonant light by a cloud of laser-cooled two-level rubidium atoms with a size comparable to the wavelength of light. We isolate a two-level atomic structure by applying a 300G…
We demonstrate an atom trap geometry for 87Rb which is capable of producing ultra high atom densities. Reradiation forces, which usually limit high densities, can be avoided in dark spontaneous-force optical traps (dark SPOTs) by sheltering…
The theoretical description of the external degrees of freedom of atoms trapped inside a magneto-optical trap (MOT) often relies on the decoupling of the evolution of the internal and external degrees of freedom. That is possible thanks to…
We report on a technique to improve the continuous loading of atomic strontium into a magnetic trap from a Magneto-Optical Trap (MOT). This is achieved by adding a depumping laser tuned to the 3P1 to 3S1 (688-nm) transition. The depumping…
We present a technique for atomic density measurements by the off-resonant phase-shift induced on a two-frequency, coherently-synthesised light beam. We have used this scheme to measure the column density of a magnetically trapped atom…
We demonstrate a technique based on invariants of motion for a time-dependent Hamiltonian, allowing a fast transition to a final state identical in theory to that obtained through a perfectly adiabatic transformation. This method is…
We report on a strategy to maximize the number of chromium atoms transferred from a magneto-optical trap into an optical trap through accumulation in metastable states via strong optical pumping. We analyse how the number of atoms in a…