Transport of magnetically sensitive atoms in a magnetic environment

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates efficient transport of magnetically sensitive ultracold atoms over 38 cm with minimal atom loss and polarization decay, enabling improved quantum simulation setups.

Contribution

It introduces a method for transporting magnetic atoms between chambers while directly measuring and adjusting the magnetic field to reduce losses.

Findings

Over 85% atom transfer efficiency achieved

Transport distance of 38 cm with moderate laser power

No decay in atomic polarization during transfer

Abstract

Among interesting applications of cold atoms, quantum simulations attract a lot of attention. In this context, rare-earth ultracold atoms are particularly appealing for such simulators due to their numerous Fano-Feshbach resonances and magnetic dipole moments in the ground state. Creating a quantum gas microscope requires a large optical access that may be achieved using transport of atoms between separate vacuum volumes. We demonstrate that in case of the transport of magnetic atoms the magnetic field can be directly measured and adjusted to reduce additional losses after the transport therefore increasing the efficiency of subsequent evaporation cooling. This approach allows to transfer over 85% of the atoms from the main chamber to the scientific chamber, located 38 cm away with moderate laser power of 26 W without atomic polarization decay.