Open AccessUsing a pair of rectangular coils in the MOT for the production of cold atom clouds with large optical density
Author(s) -
Yen-Wei Lin,
Hung-Chih Chou,
Prashant Dwivedi,
Ying-Cheng Chen,
Ite A. Yu
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
optics express
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.394
H-Index - 271
ISSN - 1094-4087
DOI - 10.1364/oe.16.003753
Subject(s) - ultracold atom , atom (system on chip) , physics , atomic physics , optics , trapping , absorption (acoustics) , pulse (music) , quantum , detector , ecology , quantum mechanics , computer science , biology , embedded system
We demonstrate a simple method to increase the optical density (OD) of cold atom clouds produced by a magneto-optical trap (MOT). A pair of rectangular anti-Helmholtz coils is used in the MOT to generate the magnetic field that produces the cigar-shaped atom cloud. With 7.2x10(8) (87)Rb atoms in the cigar-type MOT, we achieve an OD of 32 as determined by the slow light measurement and this OD is large enough such that the atom cloud can almost contain the entire Gaussian light pulse. Compared to the conventional MOT under the same trapping conditions, the OD is increased by about 2.7 folds by this simple method. In another MOT setup of the cigar-shaped Cs atom cloud, we achieve an OD of 105 as determined by the absorption spectrum of the |6S(1/2),F = 4>-->/6P(3/2),F' = 5> transition.