Related papers: A high-flux, adjustable, compact cold-atom source
Direct laser cooling of molecules has reached a phase space density exceeding 10$^{-6}$ in optical traps, but with rather small molecular numbers. To progress towards quantum degeneracy, a mechanism is needed that combines sub-Doppler…
A high-flux source of strontium atoms is required for cold atom quantum technology applications. We present a re-entrant oven design that avoids the need for any vacuum feed-throughs and has an inherent temperature gradient to guard against…
We show the possibility of implementing a deep dissipative optical lattice for neutral atoms with a macroscopic period. The depth of the lattice can reach magnitudes comparable to the depth of the magneto-optical traps (MOT), while the…
We have constructed a magneto-optical trap (MOT) for metastable triplet helium atoms utilizing the 2 3S1 -> 3 3P2 line at 389 nm as the trapping and cooling transition. The far-red-detuned MOT (detuning Delta = -41 MHz) typically contains…
Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs) have been proposed for many applications in atom interferometry, as their coherence over long evolution times promises unprecedented sensitivity. To date, BECs can be efficiently created in devices using…
We have used diffraction gratings to simplify the fabrication, and dramatically increase the atomic collection efficiency, of magneto-optical traps using micro-fabricated optics. The atom number enhancement was mainly due to the increased…
We report a two-color magneto-optical trap (MOT) for ytterbium atoms operating at a low magnetic field gradient down to 2 G/cm where a conventional MOT using the singlet transition (6s^2 1S0 -> 6s6p 1P1) is unable to trap atoms. By…
A hybrid ion-neutral trap provides an ideal system to study collisional dynamics between ions and neutrals. This system provides a general cooling method that can be applied to optically inaccessible species and can also potentially cool…
We present a quantum theory of a magneto-optical trap (MOT) from first principles based on the quantum kinetic equation for the atomic density matrix with taking into account the recoil effects caused by the interaction of atoms with the…
We demonstrate for the first time the two-color cooling and trapping of alkaline-earth atoms in a grating magneto-optical trap (gMOT). The trap is formed by a single incident laser beam together with four secondary beams that are generated…
A magneto-optical trap (MOT) of atoms or molecules is studied when two lasers of different detunings and polarization are used. Especially for $J\rightarrow J,J-1$ transitions, a scheme using more than one frequency per transition and…
Magneto-optical trapping of molecules has thus far been restricted to molecules with $^2\Sigma$ electronic ground states. These species are chemically reactive and only support a simple laser cooling scheme from their first excited…
We have laser cooled 3$\times10^6$ $^{87}$Rb atoms to 3$\mu$K in a micro-fabricated grating magneto-optical trap (GMOT), enabling future mass-deployment in highly accurate compact quantum sensors. We magnetically trap the atoms, and use…
Diffraction gratings integrated into an atomic, molecular, and optical (AMO) setup offer a compact and efficient route toward atom cooling and trapping, thus preparing magneto-optical traps (MOT) for insertion into future scalable quantum…
An atomic rubidium beam formed in a 70 mm long two-dimensional magneto-optical trap (2D MOT), directly loaded from a collimated Knudsen source, is analyzed using laser-induced fluorescence. The longitudinal velocity distribution, the…
We report on building of a compact vacuum chamber for spectroscopy of ultracold thulium and trapping of up to 13 million atoms. Compactness is achieved by obviating a classical Zeeman slower section and placing an atomic oven close to a…
We demonstrate a simple and compact approach to laser cool and trap atoms based on laser-induced thermal ablation (LITA) of a pure solid granule. A rapid thermalisation of the granule leads to a fast recovery of the ultra-high vacuum…
We describe an experimental setup for producing a large cold erbium (Er) sample in a narrow-line magneto-optical trap (MOT) in a simple and efficient way. We implement a pair of angled slowing beams with respect to the Zeeman slower axis,…
We present a novel technique for measuring the characteristics of a magneto-optical trap for cold atoms by monitoring the spontaneous emission from trapped atoms coupled into the guided mode of a tapered optical nanofiber. We show that the…
Current dual-frequency magneto-optical traps for ultracold molecules are plagued by sub-Doppler heating effects, making them vastly inferior to standard atomic MOTs. Here we demonstrate theoretically that the sub-Doppler effects in such a…