https://doi.org/10.1140/epjd/e2013-40242-y
Regular Article
The dual frequency anisotropic Magneto-Optical Trap
Laboratoire PhLAM, CNRS UMR 8523, Bât. P5 –
Université Lille1, 59655 Villeneuve
d’ Ascq Cedex,
France
a
e-mail: Daniel.Hennequin@univ-lille1.fr
Received:
15
April
2013
Received in final form:
1
July
2013
Published online:
18
October
2013
The cloud of cold atoms produced by a Magneto-Optical Trap is known to exhibit instabilities. We examine in this paper in which limits it could be possible to realize an experimental trap similar to the configurations studied theoretically, i.e. mainly traps where one direction is privileged. We study the static behavior of an anisotropic trap, where anisotropy results essentially from the use of two different laser frequencies for the arms of the trap. Such a trap has very surprising behaviors, in particular the cloud disappears for some laser frequencies, while it exists for smaller and larger frequencies. A model is build to explain these behaviors. We show in particular that, to reproduce the experimental observations, the model has to take into account the cross saturation effects. Moreover, the couplings between the different directions cannot be neglected.
Key words: Atomic Physics
© EDP Sciences, Società Italiana di Fisica and Springer-Verlag 2013