Continuous beam of laser-cooled Yb atoms

Abstract

We demonstrate 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 {\em continuously} in the vertical direction using two sets of moving-molasses beams, inclined at $\pm 15^{\circ }$ to the vertical. The cooling transition used is the strongly-allowed ${{}^{1}S}_0\to {{}^{1}P}_1$ transition at 399 nm. We capture about $7\times 10^6$ 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.

5 pages, 4 figures