Experiments to Control Atom Number and Phase-Space Density in ...
Experiments to Control Atom Number and Phase-Space Density in ...
Experiments to Control Atom Number and Phase-Space Density in ...
Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
(a)<br />
(b)<br />
(c)<br />
n(E)<br />
n(E)<br />
n(E)<br />
E avg<br />
E avg<br />
E avg<br />
Figure 2.19: Evaporative Cool<strong>in</strong>g Process. (a) The thermal distribution of the trapped<br />
cloud of a<strong>to</strong>ms extends far above the well depth U of the optical trap. (b) The hottest<br />
a<strong>to</strong>ms leave the a<strong>to</strong>ms, effectively reduc<strong>in</strong>g the average energy of the trapped a<strong>to</strong>ms. (c)<br />
Collisions between the a<strong>to</strong>ms lead <strong>to</strong> a rethermaliz<strong>in</strong>g of the cloud at a lower temperature.<br />
The process then repeats itself. The processes of leav<strong>in</strong>g the trap <strong>and</strong> rethermalization<br />
happen cont<strong>in</strong>ously <strong>and</strong> is not a discrete process. Once the thermal tail does not extend<br />
above the trap depth anymore, additional techniques (i.e. lower<strong>in</strong>g of the trap depth)<br />
are required <strong>to</strong> cont<strong>in</strong>ue the evaporative cool<strong>in</strong>g process.<br />
U<br />
The speed of evaporative cool<strong>in</strong>g is highly dependent on the timescale of rether-<br />
malization <strong>and</strong> thus on the scatter<strong>in</strong>g cross section of the a<strong>to</strong>ms. Us<strong>in</strong>g the broad<br />
Feshbach resonance <strong>in</strong> 6 Li the scatter<strong>in</strong>g cross section can be significantly <strong>in</strong>creased,<br />
thus reduc<strong>in</strong>g evaporation times dramatically.<br />
The efficiency of the evaporative cool<strong>in</strong>g process will depend on the shape of the<br />
trap depth lower<strong>in</strong>g curve. For an energy-<strong>in</strong>dependent scatter<strong>in</strong>g cross section the ideal<br />
shape is given by [40]<br />
U(t)<br />
U0<br />
=<br />
E<br />
<br />
1+ t<br />
−2(η−3)/η , (2.36)<br />
τ<br />
27<br />
E<br />
E