Loading of atoms into an optical trap with high initial phase-space density

Abstract

We report a method for loading cold atoms into an optical trap with high initial phase-space density (PSD). When the trap beam is overlapped with atoms in optical molasses of optimized parameters including large cooling beam detuning compared with conventional detuning used for a magneto-optical trap (MOT), more than $3\times 10^6$ rubidium atoms with an initial temperature less than 20 $\mu$K are loaded into a single beam trap. The obtained maximum initial PSD is estimated to be $1.1\times 10^{-3}$, which is one or two orders of magnitude greater than that achieved with the conventional loading into an optical trap from atoms in a MOT. The proposed method is promising for creating a quantum gas with a large number of atoms in a short evaporation time.

6 pages, 5 figures

References in corpus (8)

• Bose-Einstein condensation of chromium
• Efficient all-optical production of large ${}^6$Li quantum gases using D${}_1$ gray-molasses cooling
• Rapid Cooling to Quantum Degeneracy in Dynamically Shaped Atom Traps
• Spin-dependent inelastic collisions in spin-2 Bose-Einstein condensates
• Optical transport and manipulation of an ultracold atomic cloud using focus-tunable lenses
• All optical cooling of ${}^{39}$K to Bose Einstein condensation
• All-Optical BEC in a 1.06 micron dipole trap
• All-optical generation and photoassociative probing of sodium Bose-Einstein condensates

Cited by in corpus (3)

• Strongly Correlated Quantum Gas Prepared by Direct Laser Cooling
• Simulating sympathetic cooling of atomic mixtures in nonlinear traps
• Equilibrium trapping of cold atoms using dipole and radiative forces in an optical trap