A simple, reliable, and no-destructive method for the measurement of vacuum pressure

TL;DR

This paper introduces a straightforward, non-destructive technique for measuring vacuum pressure in cold atom systems, based on collision rates, suitable for miniaturized commercial devices.

Contribution

The method links vacuum pressure to collision rate constants using the ideal gas law, enabling simple and reliable pressure measurement without destruction.

Findings

Pressure measurement correlates with collision rate constants.

Method applicable to various cold atom systems.

Suitable for miniaturized commercial devices.

Abstract

We present a simple, reliable, and no-destructive method for the measurement of vacuum pressure in a magneto-optical trap. The vacuum pressure is verified to be proportional to collision rate constant between cold atoms and background gas with a coefficient k, which can be calculated by simple ideal gas law. The rate constant for loss due to collisions with all background gases can be derived from the total collision loss rate by a series of loading curve of cold atoms under different trapping laser intensities. The presented method is also applicable for other cold atom systems and meets the miniaturization requirement of commercial applications.