https://doi.org/10.1007/s100530050090
Trapping cold neutral atoms with an iron-core electromagnet
1
Institut d'Optique (URA 14 du CNRS) ,
BP 147, 91403 Orsay Cedex, France
2
Institut für Quantenoptik, Universität Hannover,
Welfengarten 1,
30167 Hannover, Germany
3
L.E.Si.R (URA 1375 du CNRS) , ENS Cachan, France
Corresponding author: a bruno.desruelle@iota.u-psud.fr
Received:
4
August
1997
Revised:
28
November
1997
Accepted:
15
January
1998
Published online: 15 March 1998
We have developed an iron-core electromagnet and used it to trap
neutral atoms. The magnetic field can be switched from a spherical
quadrupole configuration to a Ioffe configuration within 2 ms. We
load 2
87Rb atoms from a vapor into a
Magneto-Optical Trap (MOT) and transfer them into the purely magnetic
trap with an efficiency of 95% . A strong radial compression is
possible since we can generate quadrupole gradients up to 0.1 T/cm
with an excitation current of 10 A (400 W of power consumption).
PACS: 32.80.Pj – Optical cooling of atoms; trapping
© EDP Sciences, Società Italiana di Fisica, Springer-Verlag, 1998