4-7 Laser Cooling and Trapping of Rubidium Atoms

摘要

Atomic physics is developed by the realization of Magneto-Optical Trap (MOT)[1] which helps scientists achievethe miracles of Bose Einstein condensation[2], atomic frequency standard[3] and ultra-cold plasma[4]. We built arubidium MOT system and used it to cool and trap as many as 106 87Rb atoms with a density of 1010cm?3 and atemperature of 500 u0016K.The MOT consists of three systems: the vacuum system, the laser system and the control system. The vacuumsystem is carefully designed to obtain a vacuum as high as 5u000210?9 mbar. Rubidium atoms are evaporated intothe vacuum chamber by heating the pure rubidium metal to 40?C.