Year: 2013
Type: article
Abstract: We demonstrate the launching of laser-cooled Yb atoms in a continuous atomic beam. The continuous cold beam has significant advantages over the more-common pulsed fountain, which was also demonstrated by us recently. The cold beam is formed in the following steps: i) atoms from a thermal beam are first Zeeman-slowed to a small final velocity; ii) the slowed atoms are captured in a two-dimensional magneto-optic trap (2D-MOT); and iii) atoms are launched continuously in the vertical direction using two sets of moving-molasses beams, inclined at ±15° to the vertical. The cooling transition used is the strongly allowed transition at 399 nm. We capture about 7 × 10 6 atoms in the 2D-MOT, and then launch them with a vertical velocity of 13 m/s at a longitudinal temperature of 125(6) mK.
Source: Europhysics Letters (EPL)
Authors: K. D. Rathod, Alok K. Singh, Vasant Natarajan
Institution: Indian Institute of Science Bangalore
Language: English
Subfield: Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W1964326592