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Experiments with Supersonic Beams as a Source of Cold Atoms

Experiments with Supersonic Beams as a Source of Cold Atoms

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The one drawback <strong>of</strong> the above implementations <strong>of</strong> single-photon cooling is<br />

that the cooling only operates in one dimension, and cooling in more than one di-<br />

mension requires trap ergodicity or collisions between the atoms to provide mixing <strong>of</strong><br />

the degrees <strong>of</strong> freedom. Cooling in three dimensions requires the one-way wall and<br />

the new trapping potential to form a shell around the trap the atoms are initially held<br />

in. While this is not practical <strong>with</strong> an optical potential, it is possible to create these<br />

potentials using static and radio frequency (RF) or microwave magnetic fields. The<br />

RF field couples the internal states <strong>of</strong> the atom and shifts their energies [142, 143],<br />

which can create a conservative potential. The atoms are considered to be “dressed”<br />

by the RF photons, and the resulting states are referred to <strong>as</strong> “RF-dressed states”.<br />

RF-dressed potentials have been proposed [144] and demonstrated [145] for trapping<br />

<strong>of</strong> neutral atoms, and have permitted the creation <strong>of</strong> novel trap geometries [146–148].<br />

The effect on the trapped atoms <strong>of</strong> the interaction between the RF field and the trap<br />

h<strong>as</strong> been analyzed in detail [149–151]. Single-photon cooling <strong>of</strong> atoms and molecules<br />

using population transfer between RF-dressed states <strong>of</strong> a magnetic trap w<strong>as</strong> first con-<br />

sidered and proposed in [152]. It is this technique which will be adapted for use <strong>with</strong><br />

hydrogen isotopes, though the current trap will need to be changed to one <strong>with</strong> a bi<strong>as</strong><br />

field, such <strong>as</strong> a I<strong>of</strong>fe-Pritchard magnetic trap [153].<br />

An illustration <strong>of</strong> the proposed implementation <strong>of</strong> RF-dressed single-photon<br />

cooling for atomic hydrogen isotopes is shown in figure 5.26. For simplicity, only<br />

two states <strong>of</strong> the 1S manifold are considered in the following discussion. <strong>Atoms</strong><br />

which are in the lower dressed state (labeled |−〉 in figure 5.26) are low-field-seeking<br />

at low magnetic field, and high-field-seeking at high magnetic field, <strong>with</strong> the field<br />

strength <strong>of</strong> the cross-over in behavior defined by the frequency <strong>of</strong> the RF magnetic<br />

field. Similarly, atoms in the upper dressed state(labeled |+〉) are high-field-seeking<br />

at low field, and low-field-seeking at high field, <strong>with</strong> the shift in behavior occuring<br />

161

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