Laser-induced thermal source for cold atoms

Abstract

We demonstrate a simple and compact approach to laser cool and trap atoms based on laser-induced thermal ablation (LITA) of a pure solid granule. A rapid thermalisation of the granule leads to a fast recovery of the ultra-high vacuum condition required for a long trapping lifetime of the cold gas. We give a proof-of-concept of the technique, performing a magneto-optical trap on the 461 nm ${}^1{S}_0{\to }^1{P}_1$ transition of strontium. We get up to 3.5 million of cold strontium-88 atoms with a trapping lifetime of more than 4 s. The lifetime is limited by the pressure of the strontium-free residual background vapour. We also implement an original configuration of permanent magnets to create the quadruple magnetic field of the magneto-optical trap. The LITA technique can be generalized to other atomic elements such as transition metals and lanthanide atoms, and shows a strong potential for applications in quantum technologies ranging from quantum computing to precision measurements such as outdoor inertial sensing.

9 pages, 4 figures

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