An Opto-electric Trap for Cold Atoms

We present a new type of conservative trap for cold atoms: a static electric field creates a position-dependent Stark potential to compensate gravity and a far-off-resonance laser beam provides transverse confinement. We demonstrate this Opto-Electric Trap (OET) on cesium atoms, using a ring electrode at 12 kV and a Ti-sapphire laser. Loaded from a magneto-optical trap, up to 2.5 · 105 atoms are captured in the OET. The 1/e lifetime is ~1 s, presently limited by collisions with the background gas. This trap is well suited for subrecoil laser cooling and evaporative cooling of confined atoms.

[1]  Steane,et al.  Phase modulation of atomic de Broglie waves. , 1995, Physical review letters.

[2]  Chu,et al.  Evaporative cooling in a crossed dipole trap. , 1995, Physical review letters.

[3]  Shimizu,et al.  Two-dimensional subrecoil laser cooling. , 1994, Physical review letters.

[4]  André Clairon,et al.  Investigation of sub-Doppler cooling effects in a cesium magneto-optical trap , 1994 .

[5]  Pritchard,et al.  High densities of cold atoms in a dark spontaneous-force optical trap. , 1993, Physical review letters.

[6]  Robinson,et al.  Very cold trapped atoms in a vapor cell. , 1990, Physical review letters.

[7]  Gallagher,et al.  Collisional losses from a light-force atom trap. , 1989, Physical review letters.

[8]  C. cohen-tannoudji,et al.  Laser cooling below the one-photon recoil by velocity-selective coherent population trapping. , 1988, Physical review letters.

[9]  Chu,et al.  Trapping of neutral sodium atoms with radiation pressure. , 1987, Physical review letters.

[10]  Chu,et al.  Experimental observation of optically trapped atoms. , 1986, Physical review letters.