Continuous Loading of a Conservative Trap from an Atomic Beam

TL;DR

This paper presents a novel method for rapidly loading a conservative trap with atoms from an atomic beam, enabling Bose-Einstein condensation without laser cooling on a cycling transition.

Contribution

It introduces a new approach to atomic trapping and condensation that does not rely on traditional laser cooling, broadening the range of species that can be condensed.

Findings

Achieved a loading rate of 2×10^7 atoms per second.

Reached collisionally dense regime within 100 ms.

Produced a Bose-Einstein condensate via this method.

Abstract

We demonstrate the fast accumulation of Cr atoms in a conservative potential from a magnetically guided atomic beam. Without laser cooling on a cycling transition, a single dissipative step realized by optical pumping allows to load atoms at a rate of 2*10^7 1/s in the trap. Within less than 100 ms we reach the collisionally dense regime, from which we directly produce a Bose-Einstein condensate with subsequent evaporative cooling. This constitutes a new approach to degeneracy where, provided a slow beam of particles can be produced by some means, Bose-Einstein condensation can be reached for species without a cycling transition.