Large atom number dual-species magneto-optical trap for fermionic 6Li and 40K atoms

A. Ridinger; S. Chaudhuri; T. Salez; U. Eismann; D.R. Fernandes; K. Magalhães; D. Wilkowski; C. Salomon; F. Chevy

doi:10.1140/epjd/e2011-20069-4

2022 Impact factor 1.8

Atomic, Molecular, Optical and Plasma Physics

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Eur. Phys. J. D 65, 223-242 (2011)
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjd/e2011-20069-4

Regular Article

Large atom number dual-species magneto-optical trap for fermionic ⁶Li and ⁴⁰K atoms

A. Ridinger¹^a, S. Chaudhuri¹, T. Salez¹, U. Eismann¹, D.R. Fernandes¹, K. Magalhães², D. Wilkowski³^,4, C. Salomon¹ and F. Chevy¹

¹ Laboratoire Kastler Brossel, École Normale Supérieure, CNRS, Université Pierre et Marie-Curie, 24 rue Lhomond, 75231 Paris Cedex 05, France
² Instituto de Física de São Carlos, Universidade de São Paulo, Caixa Postal 369, 13560-970 São Carlos-SP, Brazil
³ Centre for Quantum Technologies, National University of Singapore, 117543 Singapore, Singapore
⁴ Institut Non Linéaire de Nice, Université de Nice Sophia-Antipolis, CNRS, 06560 Valbonne, France

^a e-mail: armin.ridinger@gmail.com

Received: 29 January 2011
Received in final form: 16 February 2011
Published online: 27 April 2011

Abstract

We present the design, implementation and characterization of a dual-species magneto-optical trap (MOT) for fermionic ⁶Li and ⁴⁰K atoms with large atom numbers. The MOT simultaneously contains 5.2 × 10⁹ ⁶Li-atoms and 8.0 × 10⁹ ⁴⁰K-atoms, which are continuously loaded by a Zeeman slower for ⁶Li and a 2D-MOT for ⁴⁰K. The atom sources induce capture rates of 1.2 × 10⁹ ⁶Li-atoms/s and 1.4 × 10⁹ ⁴⁰K-atoms/s. Trap losses due to light-induced interspecies collisions of ~65% were observed and could be minimized to ~10% by using low magnetic field gradients and low light powers in the repumping light of both atomic species. The described system represents the starting point for the production of a large-atom number quantum degenerate Fermi-Fermi mixture.