An Atomic Beam of Titanium for Ultracold Atom Experiments

TL;DR

This paper presents a method to generate a collimated atomic beam of titanium suitable for ultracold atom experiments, with detailed measurements of the beam's properties and potential applications in magneto-optical trapping.

Contribution

We demonstrate a novel titanium atomic beam source using a Ti-sublimation pump, with detailed characterization for ultracold atom applications.

Findings

Metastable atomic flux density of 4.3×10^9 s⁻¹cm⁻² measured.

Mean forward velocity of 773 m/s observed.

Highly collimated beam with flux density decreasing as 1/r.

Abstract

We generate an atomic beam of titanium (Ti) using a "Ti-ball" Ti-sublimation pump, which is a common getter pump used in ultrahigh vacuum (UHV) systems. We show that the sublimated atomic beam can be optically pumped into the metastable $3d^{3}(^4F){4}s$ $a^5F_5$ state, which is the lower energy level in a nearly cycling optical transition that can be used for laser cooling. We measure the atomic density and transverse and longitudinal velocity distributions of the beam through laser fluorescence spectroscopy. We find a metastable atomic flux density of $4.3(2)\times10^9\,$s$^{-1}$cm$^{-2}$ with mean forward velocity $773(8)\,$m/s at $2.55\,$cm directly downstream of the center of the Ti-ball. Owing to the details of optical pumping, the beam is highly collimated along the transverse axis parallel to the optical pumping beam and the flux density falls off as $1/r$. We discuss how this source can be used to load atoms into a magneto-optical trap.