A Low-power Reversible Alkali Atom Source

Abstract

An electrically-controllable, solid-state, reversible device for sourcing and sinking alkali vapor is presented. When placed inside an alkali vapor cell, both an increase and decrease of the rubidium vapor density by a factor of two are demonstrated through laser absorption spectroscopy on 10 to 15 s time scales. The device requires low voltage (5 V), low power (<3.4 mW peak power), and low energy (<10.7 mJ per 10 s pulse). The absence of oxygen emission during operation is shown through residual gas analysis, indicating Rb is not lost through chemical reaction but rather by ion transport through the designed channel. This device is of interest for atomic physics experiments and, in particular, for portable cold-atom systems where dynamic control of alkali vapor density can enable advances in science and technology.

References in corpus (4)

• The Feasibility of a Fully Miniaturized Magneto-Optical Trap for Portable Ultracold Quantum Technology
• Loading a vapor cell magneto-optic trap using light-induced atom desorption
• Loading of a Rb magneto-optic trap from a getter source
• Alkali vapor pressure modulation on the 100ms scale in a single-cell vacuum system for cold atom experiments

Cited by in corpus (6)

• Single-beam Zeeman slower and magneto-optical trap using a nanofabricated grating
• Invited Review: Micro-fabricated components for cold atom sensors
• Challenges to miniaturizing cold atom technology for deployable vacuum metrology
• A passively pumped vacuum package sustaining cold atoms for more than 200 days
• A magneto-optic trap using a reversible, solid-state alkali-metal source
• Dynamic characterization of an alkali-ion battery as a source for laser-cooled atoms