Magnetic guide for neutral atoms

School of Physics, The University of Melbourne, Victoria 3010, Australia~Received 18 July 2001; published 1 March 2002!A solenoid consisting of two interwound helical coils carrying equal but opposite currents can act as a guidefor neutral atoms. In this paper we develop the theory of such a guide and report on its performance in guidinglaser-cooled cesium atoms. Our guide is a useful tool for transporting cooled atoms since it prevents ballisticexpansion of the atomic cloud after it is released from a magneto-optical trap. In contrast to atom-guide designsusing permanent magnets, our guide can be switched off by switching the currents; hence it can be placed closeto a magnetic trap without adversely affecting the trapping efficiency. One of the unique features of this guideis that, except in the immediate neighborhood of the walls of the guide, the atoms are not magneticallyperturbed to any appreciable extent by the guide field. This opens up the possibility of a system for coolingatoms.DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevA.65.033422 PACS number~s!: 03.75.Be, 32.80.Pj, 03.75.2bI. INTRODUCTION

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