How to reach the collisional regime on a magnetically guided atomic beam

TL;DR

This paper presents a new pulsed feeding method to increase collision rates in a magnetically guided atomic beam, aiming to reach the collisional regime necessary for continuous Bose-Einstein condensate production.

Contribution

A novel pulsed feeding technique is proposed to enhance collision rates in a guided atomic beam, facilitating the transition to the collisional regime.

Findings

Coupled 10^8 atoms/s at 60 cm/s in a magnetic guide over 2 meters.

Identified a pulsed feeding approach to increase collision rates.

Discussed potential methods to shape external potential for phase space density control.

Abstract

In this paper, we report our progress towards the realization of a continuous guided atomic beam in the degenerate regime. So far, we have coupled into a magnetic guide a flux of a few $10^{8}$ atoms/s at 60 cm/s with a propagation in the guide over more than 2 meters. At this stage, the collision rate is not high enough to start an efficient forced evaporative cooling. Here we describe a new approach to reach the collisional regime. It is based on a pulsed feeding of the magnetic guide at a high repetition rate. The overlap of the packets of atoms occurs in the guide and leads to a continuous guided beam. We discuss different ways to increase the collision rate of this beam while keeping the phase space density constant by shaping the external potential.