High-brightness ultra-cold metastable neon-beam

TL;DR

This paper details the creation and characterization of a high-brightness, ultra-cold metastable neon atomic beam derived from a magneto-optical trap, suitable for atom-interferometry.

Contribution

It introduces a novel method to produce a bright, ultra-cold neon atomic beam with high density and small spot size using a complex magnetic and laser configuration.

Findings

Minimum trap diameter of 50 microns

Atomic density nearly 10^{13} cm^{-3}

Atomic temperature below 200 micro-K

Abstract

This paper presents detailed characteristics of an ultra-cold bright metastable neon atomic beam which we have been using for atom-interferometric applications. The basis of the device is an atomic beam released from a magneto-optical trap (MOT) which is operated with a high intensity trapping laser, high magnetic quadrupole field, and large laser detuining. Mainly due to the complex structure of three dimensional magnetic field and laser beams, a bright small spot of atoms is formed near the center of the quadrupole magnetic field under an appropriate operating condition. We obtained the minimum trap diameter of 50 micron meter, the atomic density nearly 10^{13}cm^{-3}, and the atomic temperature slightly less than the Doppler limited temperature of 200 micro-K. By releasing trapped atoms we obtained an bright cold atomic beam which is not far from the collision limited atomic density.