Accelerated Thermalisation of 39K atoms in a Magnetic Trap with Superimposed Optical Potential

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates a significant reduction in thermalisation time for 39K atoms in a magnetic trap by superimposing a focused optical dipole beam, enabling faster cooling and loading processes.

Contribution

It introduces a method to accelerate thermalisation of 39K atoms in a magnetic trap using a superimposed optical potential, achieving over tenfold reduction in thermalisation time.

Findings

Thermalisation time reduced to less than a second.

Efficient loading of 39K atoms into a dipole trap.

Superimposed optical potential significantly enhances cooling efficiency.

Abstract

We report the rapid accelerated thermalisation of Potassium 39 K atoms loaded in a magnetic trap, in the presence of a single dipole trap beam. More than an order of magnitude reduction in the thermalisation time, to less than a second, is observed with the focused off- resonant beam occupying only 0.01% of the volume of the magnetic trap. The cold atoms are loaded from a Magneto-Optical Trap(MOT) of 39 K that has gone through a compressed MOT and sub-Doppler cooling stage. The atoms are prepared in the magnetically stretched |F = 2, mF = 2> state prior to loading into the hybrid trap. We also report a direct loading of 39 K atoms, prepared in the state |F = 1>, into a single beam dipole trap.