Loading a dipole trap from an atomic reservoir

Year: 2011

Authors: Sofikitis D., Stern G., Kime L., Dimova E., Fioretti A., Comparat D., Pillet P.

Autors Affiliation: Laboratoire Aimé Cotton, CNRS, Université ́Paris-Sud, Bât. 505, 91405 Orsay, France; Laboratoire Charles Fabry de l’Institut d’Optique, CNRS, Université ́Paris-Sud, Institut d’Optique Graduate School, RD 128, 91127 Palaiseau Cedex, France; Institute of Solid State Physics, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, 72 Tzarigradsko Chaussee Blvd., 1784 Sofia, Bulgaria

Abstract: Loading a dipole trap from an atomic reservoir is considered to be an efficient method for the
preparation of trapped atoms at high density, which has led to notable results for the case of Rb and
Cr atoms. It was also theoretically predicted to provide efficient loading also in the cesium case. In this
article, we report on the experimental study of the loading of a single-arm and of a crossed dipole trap for
cesium atoms. This study is performed by comparing several types of reservoirs from which the atoms are
loaded: a magnetic trap, a Dark-SPOT and a compressed MOT. In all cases the number of atoms is found
to decrease shortly after the beginning of the loading process. A few possible phenomena leading to such
a behavior, namely the limited reservoir lifetime and/or a possible heating in the reservoir, are discussed.
The loading dynamics is fitted by a phenomenological rate equation. From an experimental point of view,
the reservoir loading method can be considered efficient in terms of number of transferred atoms for the
single arm dipole trap. On the contrary, it does not seem to provide, for the case of cesium atoms in a
crossed dipole trap, an attractive alternative in comparison with existing loading methods such as Raman
sideband cooling.

Journal/Review: EUROPEAN PHYSICAL JOURNAL D

Volume: 61 (2)      Pages from: 437  to: 442

More Information: This work has been supported by the \”Institut Francilien de Recherche sur les Atomes Froids\” (IFRAF). A.F. has been supported by the Triangle de la Physique, under contracts 2007-n.74T and 2009-035T GULFSTREAM.D.S. thanks Etienne Marechal of the Cold Atom group of Laboratoire de Physique des Laser of Univ. Paris 13, for supplying with the LabVIEW software on which our piloting program was based. We thank J. Gurian for the critical reading of the manuscript.
DOI: 10.1140/epjd/e2010-10261-5

Citations: 7
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