A compact high-flux grating chip cold atom source

authored by

Hendrik Heine, Aidan S. Arnold, Melanie Le Gonidec, Paul F. Griffin, Erling Riis, Waldemar Herr, Ernst M Rasel

Abstract

Diffraction gratings have simplified the optical implementation of magneto-optical traps (MOTs) to require only a single input beam, however reaching high atom number and fast loading has proven to be a challenge. We equipped an atom chip with a grating surface and paired it with a velocity-tunable 2D+-MOT as an atomic source to facilitate efficient loading together with magnetic trapping. Using a uniform grating illumination, we demonstrate magneto-optical trapping of 1.0(1)×109 atoms within one second, cool them to 14.1(3) µK, and transfer a quarter of them into the magnetic chip trap. This is a key step towards simple portable quantum sensors employing (ultra-)cold atoms.

Organisation(s)

Institute of Quantum Optics
Laboratory of Nano and Quantum Engineering

External Organisation(s)

University of Strathclyde
DLR-Institute for Satellite Geodesy and Inertial Sensing

Type

Article

Journal

New Journal of Physics

Volume

27

ISSN

1367-2630

Publication date

14.03.2025

Publication status

Published

Peer reviewed

Yes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

General Physics and Astronomy

Electronic version(s)

https://doi.org/10.1088/1367-2630/adbc14 (Access: Open)