A high-flux cold-atom source utilising a grating atom chip

TL;DR

This paper presents a simplified, high-flux cold-atom source using a nano-structured grating on an atom chip, enabling efficient atom trapping and cooling for portable quantum sensors.

Contribution

The authors developed a novel atom chip with a diffraction grating that derives all MOT beams from a single laser, simplifying BEC device setups.

Findings

Captured 10^9 atoms in one second

Cooled atoms to 14 microkelvin

Demonstrated magnetic trapping on the atom chip

Abstract

Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs) have been proposed for many applications in atom interferometry, as their coherence over long evolution times promises unprecedented sensitivity. To date, BECs can be efficiently created in devices using atom chips, but these are still complex and place high demands on size, weight and power. To further simplify these setups, we equipped an atom chip with a nano-structured diffraction-grating to derive all beams for the magneto-optical trap (MOT) from a single laser beam. Moreover, using a 2D$^+$-MOT as an atomic source and a beam with uniform intensity for the grating illumination, we capture $1\times10^9$ atoms in one second, cool them to $14\,\mu$K, and demonstrate magnetic trapping using the atom chip. This is a major step towards the simplification of portable BEC devices for quantum sensing on earth and in space.