Mathew S. Hamilton

Inter-isotope effects in optimal dual-isotope loading into a shallow optical trap

Examination of loading the isotopes 85Rb and 87Rb simultaneously into a shallow far-off-resonance trap (FORT) has revealed an unexpected decrease in maximum atom number loaded as compared to loading either isotope alone. The simultaneous loading of the FORT will be affected by additional homonuclear and heteronuclear light-assisted collisional losses. However, these losses are measured and found to be insufficient to explain the observed drop in the total number of atoms loaded into the FORT. We find that our observations are consistent with a decrease in loading rate caused by inter-isotope disruptions of the efficient laser cooling required to load atoms into the optical trap.

Influence of optical molasses in loading a shallow optical trap

We have examined loading of 85Rb atoms into a shallow Far-Off-Resonance Trap (FORT) from an optical molasses and compared it to loading from a Magneto-Optical Trap (MOT). We found that substantially more atoms could be loaded into the FORT via an optical molasses as compared to loading from the MOT alone. To determine why this was the case, we measured the rate of atoms loaded into the FORT and the losses from the FORT during the loading process. For both MOT and molasses loading, we examined atom load rate and losses over a range of detunings as well as hyperfine pump powers. We found that the losses induced during MOT loading were essentially the same as the losses induced during molasses loading at the same MOT/molasses detuning. In contrast, load rate of the molasses was higher than that of a MOT at a given detuning. This caused the optical molasses to be able to load more atoms than the MOT. Optimization of FORT loading form an optical molasses improved the number of atoms we could trap by a factor of two over that of optimal loading from a MOT.