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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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3.1 Using Helium for Atom Optics <strong>Experiments</strong><br />

Most atom optics experiments have been done <strong>with</strong> l<strong>as</strong>er cooled atoms. The<br />

advantage <strong>of</strong> this is a cold sample which can e<strong>as</strong>ily be manipulated. However, be-<br />

cause <strong>of</strong> the large polarizability <strong>of</strong> most l<strong>as</strong>er coolable atoms, they are sensitive to<br />

stray electric fields. Similarly, many l<strong>as</strong>er coolable atoms are quite sensitive to stray<br />

magnetic fields. While their sensitivity is an advantage when controlling the atoms,<br />

stray fields will add systematic effects limiting the sensitivity <strong>of</strong> many me<strong>as</strong>urements.<br />

Though ground state noble g<strong>as</strong>es are difficult to manipulate, doing so is not<br />

impossible and there are several advantages to using them for experiments in atom<br />

optics. One such advantage is that they are known to reflect well from single crystal<br />

surfaces, and even if they do not reflect from a surface, they are unlikely to stick<br />

to it. Because <strong>of</strong> this, an aperture will not clog when subjected to a beam <strong>of</strong> noble<br />

g<strong>as</strong>es, even at high intensity. The other principle advantage is their low polarizabilty.<br />

Ground state noble g<strong>as</strong>es are relatively insensitive to stray electric fields, and they are<br />

insensitive to magnetic fields to first order. This makes ground state noble g<strong>as</strong>es, and<br />

ground state helium in particular, very attractive for certain precision me<strong>as</strong>urements<br />

and applications such <strong>as</strong> atom interferometry.<br />

A final advantage which is available when using ground state noble g<strong>as</strong>es for<br />

atom optics experiments is the large fluxes available. <strong>Supersonic</strong> beams typically use<br />

noble g<strong>as</strong>es <strong>as</strong> carriers, and a significant fraction <strong>of</strong> the flux <strong>of</strong> nearly any supersonic<br />

beam will consist <strong>of</strong> a ground state noble g<strong>as</strong>. Fluxes <strong>of</strong> up to 4 · 10 23 molecules/sr/s<br />

have been me<strong>as</strong>ured for pulsed beams <strong>as</strong> described in chapter 2, and for continuous<br />

beams, fluxes <strong>of</strong> 1.1 · 10 20 molecules/sr/s have been observed [45]. These bright-<br />

nesses provide a large advantage and can reduce the uncertainty <strong>of</strong> many precision<br />

me<strong>as</strong>urements, particularly for atom interferometry where the shot noise contributes<br />

significantly to the uncertainly. Helium is the atom most resistant to clustering, re-<br />

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