High-flux cold lithium-6 and rubidium-87 atoms from compact two-dimensional magneto-optical traps

TL;DR

This paper presents a compact two-dimensional magneto-optical trap setup that achieves record high fluxes of cold lithium and rubidium atoms, significantly improving over traditional systems and enabling advanced ultracold molecule production.

Contribution

The authors develop a compact, efficient 2D MOT system with high atom fluxes, utilizing short-distance Zeeman slowing for the first time in such a setup.

Findings

Lithium atom flux reaches 6.6×10^9 atoms/s, 44 times higher with Zeeman slowing.

Rubidium atom flux is 2.3×10^9 atoms/s at room temperature.

The entire system fits within a small volume of 55×65×70 cm^3.

Abstract

We report a compact setup with in-series two-dimensional magneto-optical traps (2D MOTs) that provides high-flux cold lithium and rubidium atoms. Thanks to the efficient short-distance Zeeman slowing, the maximum 3D MOT loading rate of lithium atoms reaches a record value of $6.6\times 10^{9}$ atoms/s at a moderate lithium-oven temperature of 372 degrees Celsius, which is 44 times higher than that without the Zeeman slowing light. The flux of rubidium is also as high as $2.3\times10^9$ atoms/s with the rubidium oven held at room temperature. Meanwhile, the entire vacuum-chamber system, including an ultra-high-vacuum science cell, is within a small volume of $55\times65\times70~\mathrm{cm}^3$. Our work represents a substantial improvement over traditional bulky and complex dual-species cold-atom setups. It provides a good starting point for the fast production of a double-degenerate lithium-rubidium atomic mixture and large samples of ultracold lithium-rubidium ground-state molecules.