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Experiments to Control Atom Number and Phase-Space Density in ...

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<strong>in</strong>itial fast a<strong>to</strong>m loss, after which the a<strong>to</strong>m number rema<strong>in</strong>s approximately constant.<br />

This is the behaviour one expects from free evaporation, where the evaporation s<strong>to</strong>ps<br />

once the temperature of the a<strong>to</strong>ms is sufficiently reduced, <strong>and</strong> the tail of the thermal<br />

distribution no longer extends above the trap depth. After 700 ms of free evaporation<br />

the temperature of the ensemble is reduced <strong>to</strong> 58 µK.<br />

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Figure 8.14: A<strong>to</strong>m number as a function of free evaporation time at a field of 300 G.<br />

Error bars <strong>in</strong>dicate statistical uncerta<strong>in</strong>ties.<br />

Once free evaporation levels off, around 700 ms, the trap depth is lowered <strong>to</strong> force<br />

evaporation <strong>to</strong> cont<strong>in</strong>ue. The trap depth of the laser is lowered accord<strong>in</strong>g <strong>to</strong> equation 2.36<br />

with τ = 400 ms <strong>and</strong> η = 10.9. Figure 8.15 shows the a<strong>to</strong>m number <strong>and</strong> temperature as<br />

a function of forced evaporation time, aga<strong>in</strong> at B = 300 G. The decrease <strong>in</strong> temperature<br />

is a clear <strong>in</strong>dication that evaporative cool<strong>in</strong>g is reduc<strong>in</strong>g the temperature of this system.<br />

However, the goal of evaporative cool<strong>in</strong>g is not <strong>to</strong> reduce the temperature but <strong>to</strong><br />

<strong>in</strong>crease the phase-space densityρ ∝ N/(V·T 3/2 ) of the trapped a<strong>to</strong>mic ensemble. Figure<br />

8.16 shows the temperature as a function of a<strong>to</strong>m number dur<strong>in</strong>g the forced evaporative<br />

cool<strong>in</strong>g sequence. The reduction <strong>in</strong> temperature is larger than the loss <strong>in</strong> a<strong>to</strong>m number,<br />

<strong>and</strong> the evaporative cool<strong>in</strong>g sequence therefore does <strong>in</strong>crease the phase-space density.<br />

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