https://doi.org/10.1140/epjd/e2007-00245-y
Accumulation of chromium metastable atoms into an optical trap
Laboratoire de Physique des Lasers, CNRS UMR 7538, Université Paris 13, 99 avenue J.-B. Clément, 93430 Villetaneuse, France
Corresponding author: a vernac@galilee.univ-paris13.fr
Received:
10
May
2007
Published online:
1
August
2007
We report the fast accumulation of a large number of metastable 52Cr atoms in a mixed trap, formed by the superposition of a strongly confining optical trap and a quadrupolar magnetic trap. The steady state is reached after about 400 ms, providing a cloud of more than one million metastable atoms at a temperature of about 100 μK, with a peak density of 1018 atoms m-3. We have optimized the loading procedure, and measured the light shift of the 5D4 state by analyzing how the trapped atoms respond to a parametric excitation. We compare this result to a theoretical evaluation based on the available spectroscopic data for chromium atoms.
PACS: 32.80.Pj – Optical cooling of atoms; trapping / 32.10.Dk – Electric and magnetic moments, polarizability / 42.50.Vk – Mechanical effects of light on atoms, molecules, electrons, and ions
© EDP Sciences, Società Italiana di Fisica, Springer-Verlag, 2007
