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Trapping of Rb atoms by ac electric fields

Sophie Schlunk·Adela Marian·Peter Geng·Allard P. Mosk·Gerard Meijer·Wieland Schoellkopf
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Abstract

We demonstrate trapping of an ultracold gas of neutral atoms in a macroscopic ac electric trap. Three-dimensional confinement is obtained by switching between two saddle-point configurations of the electric field. Stable trapping is observed in a narrow range of switching frequencies around 60 Hz. The dynamic confinement of the atoms is directly visualized at different phases of the ac switching cycle. We observe about 10^5 Rb atoms in the 1 mm^3 large and several microkelvins deep trap with a lifetime of approximately 5 s.

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Sophie Schlunk, Adela Marian, Peter Geng, Allard P. Mosk, Gerard Meijer, Wieland Schoellkopf. 2007-06-04. Trapping of Rb atoms by ac electric fields. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.98.223002

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