Evaporative Cooling of a Guided Rubidium Atomic Beam

Thierry Lahaye (1) , Z. Wang (1) , G. Reinaudi (1) , S. P. Rath (1) , J Dalibard (1) , D. Guéry-Odelin (1)

1 LKB (Lhomond) - Laboratoire Kastler Brossel

We report on our recent progress in the manipulation and cooling of a magnetically guided, high flux beam of $^{87}{\rm Rb}$ atoms. Typically $7\times 10^9$ atoms per second propagate in a magnetic guide providing a transverse gradient of $800$~G/cm, with a temperature $\sim550$~$\mu$K, at an initial velocity of 90~cm/s. The atoms are subsequently slowed down to $\sim 60$~cm/s using an upward slope. The relatively high collision rate (5~s$^{-1}$) allows us to start forced evaporative cooling of the beam, leading to a reduction of the beam temperature by a factor of~4, and a ten-fold increase of the on-axis phase-space density.

Mots clés: Evaporative cooling; Atom laser; Bose Einstein Condensation

Domaines: Autre [cond-mat.other]

Thierry Lahaye, Z. Wang, G. Reinaudi, S. P. Rath, J Dalibard, et al.. Evaporative Cooling of a Guided Rubidium Atomic Beam. Physical Review A : Atomic, molecular, and optical physics [1990-2015], 2005, 72, pp.033411. ⟨10.1103/PhysRevA.72.033411⟩. ⟨hal-00005011⟩