Miniaturized Rubidium Source for Generating Vapor Phase Atoms for Magneto Optical Traps

authored by

Jannik Koch, Leonard Frank Diekmann, Alexander Kassner, Folke Dencker, Marc Christopher Wurz

Abstract

Ultracold atoms offer the highest sensitivity for quantum sensors. The industrial use of these systems requires miniaturization of the experimental setups. For this purpose, a concept for a miniaturized atom source using rubidium as atom species for the generation of vapor phase atoms was developed in this work. As an alkali metal, rubidium is highly reactive and reacts directly with small amounts of water or oxygen. In this source, pure rubidium is encapsulated by bonding two micromachined silicon components, a reservoir chip and an active release chip, together in a glovebox under an argon atmosphere. This prevents the rubidium from reacting when the source comes into contact with air. The active release chip had a thin silicon membrane and an additional gold structure that enables the membrane to be heated by Joule heating. After pumping down and baking the vacuum test chamber to an ultra-high vacuum, the release mechanism is triggered by a sharp increase in temperature within milliseconds. After opening the source, a rubidium signal was detected by analyzing the residual gas atmosphere of the vacuum with a quadrupole mass spectrometer.

Organisation(s)

Institute of Microtechnology

Type

Conference contribution

Publication date

15.07.2024

Publication status

Published

Peer reviewed

Yes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Electronic, Optical and Magnetic Materials, Instrumentation

Electronic version(s)

https://doi.org/10.1109/IVNC63480.2024.10652295 (Access: Closed)