Berlin 2005 – scientific programme

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Q: Quantenoptik und Photonik

Q 20: Poster Fallen & Kühlung

Q 20.7: Poster

Monday, March 7, 2005, 11:00–12:30, Poster HU

Towards electric trapping of neutral atoms — •T. Rieger, P. Windpassinger, T. Junglen, S.A. Rangwala, P.W.H. Pinkse, and G. Rempe — Max-Planck-Institut für Quantenoptik, Hans-Kopfermann-Str. 1, 85748 Garching.

The idea of electric trapping of neutral atoms in time-varying electric fields was already proposed in the early 1990ies [1]. Recently, we could show guiding of neutral molecules in time-varying electric fields  [2] with a similar technique. The perspective of sympathetic cooling of molecules with atoms led us to design an experiment for trapping neutral atoms in time-varying electric fields.

Simulations predict a trap depth of about 30 µ K for typical experimental parameters, imposing pre-cooling in a magneto-optical trap (MOT). A vacuum apparatus was built housing the electrodes for the electric trap and providing optical access. A MOT has been setup ≈ 1 cm below the electric trap. The idea is to load the atoms into a magnetic trap and to transfer them over the distance of 1 cm, by lifting the center of the magnetic trap. We report the status of the experiment.

[1] F. Shimizu and M. Morinaga, Jpn. J. Appl. Phys. 31, L1721 (1992);

[2] T. Junglen et al., Phys. Rev. Let., 92, 223001 (2004)