Optimized loading of an optical dipole trap for the production of Chromium BECs

TL;DR

This paper presents a strategy to enhance the transfer efficiency of chromium atoms into an optical trap for Bose-Einstein condensate production by optimizing optical pumping and metastable state management.

Contribution

It introduces a novel approach using multiple laser diodes and a passive reference cavity to improve atom transfer and condensate size in chromium BEC experiments.

Findings

Increased number of atoms transferred to the optical trap.

Effective handling of metastable state populations.

Implementation of a stable laser diode system.

Abstract

We report on a strategy to maximize the number of chromium atoms transferred from a magneto-optical trap into an optical trap through accumulation in metastable states via strong optical pumping. We analyse how the number of atoms in a chromium Bose Einstein condensate can be raised by a proper handling of the metastable state populations. Four laser diodes have been implemented to address the four levels that are populated during the MOT phase. The individual importance of each state is specified. To stabilize two of our laser diode, we have developed a simple ultrastable passive reference cavity whose long term stability is better than 1 MHz.