Continuous loading of cold atoms into a Ioffe-Pritchard magnetic trap

We report on the design, implementation, and performance of a compact two-dimensional magneto-optical trap (2D MOT) for cesium. In a small-volume vacuum chamber, the setup uses cesium dispensers in close proximity to the trapping region of the 2D MOT and operates at low vapor pressures in the $10^{-9}$ torr range. We achieve a cold atom flux of $4 \times 10^8$ atoms/s that is comparable to the performance of more complex atomic sources. The setup is simple to construct and ca...

This study presents investigations on pulsed loading of a magneto-optical trap (MOT) on an atom chip in an UHV environment. Using three parallel resistively heated Rb-metal dispensers activated by pulsed current supply, approximately 3.0 $\times$ $10^{7}$ cold $^{87}Rb$ atoms were loaded into the MOT. A current pulse of $\sim$ 24 A with duration of $\sim$ 10 s raised the pressure in the chamber from 2.0 $\times$ $10^{-10}$ Torr to 3.3 $\times$ $10^{-10}$ Torr. Remarkably, the...

We present a novel optical cooling scheme that relies on hyperfine dark states to enhance loading and cooling atoms inside deep optical dipole traps. We demonstrate a seven-fold increase in the number of atoms loaded in the conservative potential with strongly shifted excited states. In addition, we use the energy selective dark-state to efficiently cool the atoms trapped inside the conservative potential rapidly and without losses. Our findings open the door to optically ass...

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, and further slow down atoms exiting from the Zeeman slower. The second-stage slowing beams enable the narrow-line MOT to trap atoms exiting from the Zeeman slower with higher velocity. This scheme is particularly useful when the Zeeman slowe...

We demonstrate a continuously loaded $^{88}\mathrm{Sr}$ magneto-optical trap (MOT) with a steady-state phase-space density of $1.3(2) \times 10^{-3}$. This is two orders of magnitude higher than reported in previous steady-state MOTs. Our approach is to flow atoms through a series of spatially separated laser cooling stages before capturing them in a MOT operated on the 7.4-kHz linewidth Sr intercombination line using a hybrid slower+MOT configuration. We also demonstrate pro...

We demonstrate loading of ions into a surface-electrode trap (SET) from a remote, laser-cooled source of neutral atoms. We first cool and load $\sim$ $10^6$ neutral $^{88}$Sr atoms into a magneto-optical trap from an oven that has no line of sight with the SET. The cold atoms are then pushed with a resonant laser into the trap region where they are subsequently photoionized and trapped in an SET operated at a cryogenic temperature of 4.6 K. We present studies of the loading p...

We report the continuous or pulsed loading of a slow and cold atomic beam into a magnetic guide. In order to optimize the transfer into the guide, we have studied two coupling schemes. The first one is based on an auxiliary two-dimensional MOT that confines the atoms transversally before they enter the guide. However, for low atomic velocities, the atoms are strongly heated in the longitudinal direction. This limitation does not occur in the second coupling scheme which relie...

We present an intense source of $^{87}$Rb atoms that has been set up to produce a continuous, slow and cold beam in a magnetic guide. It consists of a two-dimensional magneto-optical trap whose cooling laser power is provided by a master-oscillator tapered-amplifier system. This trap produces an atomic beam with a flux of over $10^{10}$ atoms/s and a mean velocity of 40 m/s. The beam is recaptured by a second trap whose purpose consists in reducing the beam's velocity, in fur...

We report the laser-cooling and confinement of Cd atoms in a magneto-optical trap, and characterize the loading process from the background Cd vapor. The trapping laser drives the 1S0-1P1 transition at 229 nm in this two-electron atom and also photoionizes atoms directly from the 1P1 state. This photoionization overwhelms the other loss mechanisms and allows a direct measurement of the photoionization cross section, which we measure to be 2(1)x10^(-16)cm^(2) from the 1P1 stat...

We study the dynamical evolution of cold atoms in crossed optical dipole trap theoretically and experimentally. The atomic transport process is accompanied by two competitive kinds of physical mechanics, atomic loading and atomic loss. The loading process normally is negligible in the evaporative cooling experiment on the ground, while it is significant in the preparation of ultra-cold atoms in the space station. Normally, the atomic loading process is much weaker than the at...