Continuous loading of a non-dissipative atom trap

TL;DR

This paper presents a theoretical study of a continuous, non-dissipative atom trap where particles are loaded from an incident beam, leading to a steady-state with enhanced phase space density due to a resonance effect.

Contribution

It introduces a novel scheme for continuous atom trapping with controlled evaporation thresholds and analyzes the conditions for resonance-induced phase space density increase.

Findings

Resonance occurs when transverse evaporation threshold matches incident particle energy.

Steady-state particle number and temperature are characterized.

Significant increase in phase space density at resonance.

Abstract

We study theoretically a scheme in which particles from an incident beam are trapped in a potential well when colliding with particles already present in the well. The balance between the arrival of new particles and the evaporation of particles from the trapped cloud leads to a steady-state that we characterize in terms of particle number and temperature. For a cigar shaped potential, different longitudinal and transverse evaporation thresholds can be chosen. We show that a resonance occur when the transverse evaporation threshold coincides with the energy of the incident particles. It leads to a dramatic increase in phase space density with respect to the incident beam.