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Transport of launched cold atoms with a laser guide and pulsed magnetic fields

Matthew J Pritchard·Aidan S Arnold·Simon L Cornish·David W Hallwood·Chris V S Pleasant·Ifan G Hughes
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Abstract

We propose the novel combination of a laser guide and magnetic lens to transport a cold atomic cloud. We have modelled the loading and guiding of a launched cloud of cold atoms with the optical dipole force. We discuss the optimum strategy for loading typically 30% of the atoms from a MOT and guiding them vertically through 22cm. However, although the atoms are tightly confined transversely, thermal expansion in the propagation direction still results in a density loss of two orders of magnitude. By combining the laser guide with a single impulse from a magnetic lens we show one can actually increase the density of the guided atoms by a factor of 10.

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Matthew J Pritchard, Aidan S Arnold, Simon L Cornish, David W Hallwood, Chris V S Pleasant, Ifan G Hughes. 2006-11-09. Transport of launched cold atoms with a laser guide and pulsed magnetic fields. https://doi.org/10.1088/1367-2630%2F8%2F12%2F309

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