DURIP-95 Nano-Kelvin Cooling of Dense Atoms for an Ultra-Stable Fountain AtomicClock

摘要

With the funding provided under this grant, we have procured equipments forcreating a sample of 87Rb atoms with ultracold temperature (35 nano-Kelvin) and high density (10(exp 12 /sq cm)), using Raman cooling via velocity selective coherent population trapping. We have already been able to create a magneto-optic trap (MOT) of 87Rb atoms, loaded from background rubidium vapor inside the trap chamber. We have achieved a density close to 10(exp 12) /sq cm, at a temperature of 80 mu-K, which is typical of such a trap. The next step is to load the trap from a chirp-slowed atomic beam, and use a repumping beam which is dark at the center. This is expected to increase the density to about 10(exp 12) /sq cm. We