The conclusions for the current setup are that
1. 23Na can be used to establish all relevant efficiencies of the collection setup on the quantitative level in preparation for the efficient trapping of21Na.
2. The fraction of ions extracted from the Thermal Ionizer which ends up trapped in the collector cell MOT is currently 5.0+2.4−1.6· 10−5. The collection efficiency of 4.0+1.7−1.2· 10−4is the main limiting factor.
3. The collection efficiency is now limited by the quality of the non-stick coat-ing. Improving this will result in an estimated factor of 100 higher collection efficiency.
Comparison and outlook
Because the final efficiency depends strongly on the number of bounces we made an extensive search in the literature to see what one may expect and how a 1% collection efficiency can be achieved with a neutralizer based vapor MOT setup. In table 4.11 a compilation of the most relevant experimental parameters is listed for high efficiency trapping experiments.
4.7 Conclusions 115
Some of the entries of the table need some clarification, we discuss briefly each experiment. For the Cs experiment the expected collection efficiency, based on the capture velocity and number of bounces, is a factor of 18 higher than measured experimentally. This is also not understood by the authors[230]. We use here the direct measured value. It is possible that either their reported collection efficiency is higher than in reality, or their number of bounces is higher than measured.
For the210Fr experiment the number of bounces was only measured in a test setup.
The authors estimate a single pass trapping efficiency of about 10−5, assuming a thermalization factor of 6 we calculated the number of bounces.
For the221Fr experiment the number of bounces is not derived. However, the average time the atoms spend in the cell is known to the authors. At room temperature the mean velocity is 168 m/s, combined with the average distance of 2/3 times 4.4 cm inner diameter of the trapping cell (equation B.5), gives an estimated average amount of 3.6· 103bounces for the average residence time of 630(40) ms.
For the 37,38mK TRINAT experiment at TRIUMF, the number of bounces is not mentioned. However, they describe the cell geometry in detail[72]. It is a cube with an edge of 5 cm and three holes of 6 mm diameter. The cell has no tubes attached to it and is placed inside a vacuum chamber. An atom exiting is thus practically lost for the trapping process. Based on relative exit area, the number of bounces is expected to be in the order of 180. In the second MOT chamber, a population of about 5000 trapped38mK (t1/2= 0.92 s) atoms is maintained [292]. With a transfer efficiency of 75% and a38mK production yield of 8.7· 106for a 1.1μA beam current [72], this gives an estimated efficiency for the target to the collector MOT of order 6· 10−4. With the same dual MOT setup also80Rb has been trapped and transferred[74, 293, 294].
In these references only two numbers are mentioned which give an indication of the overall efficiency: 2· 109ions/s are extracted from the target and about 2 · 106atoms are continuously trapped in the collector MOT. Assuming a trap lifetime of about 1 s, this gives an overall efficiency of 10−3.
The high number of bounces reported for the209,210Fr experiment was based on measurements with Rb, without a neutralizer device being present. It is possible that during the beam time the coating quality degraded due to the hot neutralizer[231].
The best collection efficiency is achieved with the210Fr setup, but it did not have a neutralizer and the exits were also closed to prevent loosing the atoms from the trapping volume. The top three best performing experiments all have a proper working non-stick coating. It can also be concluded that a setup with a Zeeman slower does not necessarily give a better overall efficiency.
Using the cubic cell setup a state-of-the art high efficiency MOT can be established by improving on two points:
• A non-stick wall coating, bringing the number of bounces from 1 to 500 and increasingεcolwith a factor 100 (see section 3.6).
• Improving the capture velocity by going from the current peak intensity per beam of 0.2 s0to an intensity of 1 s0over the whole laser beam area.
Further, the RFQ might be operated in a more efficient way for21Na, resulting in an increase of the transport efficiency with maximally a factor 3. Additionally, the usage of the RFQ instead of the drift tube will remove23Na from the ion beam.
If we only include the expected improvement from the number of bounces, this measure would result in a projected collection efficiency ofεcol= 1% and an overall efficiency ofεoverall= 0.3%.
4.7 Conclusions 117
Table4.11:Theoverallefficiencyforunstableisotopeexperiments,definedastheratiooftheMOTloadingratetothesourcerate.Thelaserbeam diameteristhe1/e2intensitydiameter.TheglasstypesarePyrex(P)andQuartz(Q). AtomicOverallCollectionBouncesNeutralizerEionNeutralizerLEBLGlassCoatingLaserRef. speciesefficiencyefficiencyefficiency(keV)T(K)eff.type(cm) 210Fr6·10−31·10−2300†0.525Y,>10000.90PSC-774.2[80] 135,137 Cs5·10−3 3·10−2 3500.4520Zr,11000.35QSC-775[291] 221 Fr4·10−3 6·10−1 2400† Ovenbased,ε=7·10−3 QSC-774[290] 82Rb1·10−34·10−3300.3020Y,10000.35QOTS5[221] 38m K7·10−4 --0.230Zr,1100-PSC-774.5[72] 21 Na2·10−4 Zeemanslowerbased,ε=RMOT Rsource3.2[65] 209,210 Fr2·10−4 3·10−4 1.4·103 0.73Y,11000.50POTS4[78] 37,38mK-2·10−4---Hf,1100-PDry-film4.5[295] 21 Na5·10−5 4·10−4 ∼50.42.8Zr,11000.32PPDMS4thiswork † Estimatedvalue(seetext).
C
HAPTER5
Double MOT transfer of 23 Na atoms
As demonstrated in chapter 2 and 3 the requirements for a high collection efficiency Magneto Optical Trap (MOT) setup are incompatible with the conditions for a meas-urement of theβ-decay correlations of21Na. A high collection efficiency critically depends on the degree of enclosure of the atom vapor with a coated glass surface, which prevents sticking of the atoms, and allows only for small exit areas. The presence of particle detectors which reconstruct the decay kinematics as well as the need for a high pumping speed to ensure long trap lifetimes for the correlations measurements requires a second, spatially separated atom trap for the decay measurement to which the atoms are transferred.
In our case the atoms are collected in the collector chamber (CC) MOT, which is described in chapter 4. The science chamber (SC) MOT system, situated 69 cm away, is surrounded by particle detectors which have been setup to reconstruct the full decay kinematics[69]. The main goal of this chapter is to characterize and optimize the transfer from the collector chamber to the science chamber using stable23Na atoms and to identify possible improvements to achieve the projected transfer efficiency of 50% for21Na.
We discussed in section 2.9 the advantages and disadvantages of possible transfer strategies. We chose in our experiment to set up the resonant pulsed transfer, combined with an intermediate cooling stage. In this approach the trapped atoms in the CC MOT are accelerated by a short resonant laser pulse and recaptured by the SC MOT.
Additionally, the atoms are cooled by an optical funnel (a two dimensional MOT). The funnel compresses and cools the pushed, heated atom cloud and therefore enhances the transfer efficiency. This transfer method is the preferable method for Na and has been used to demonstrate for41K a transfer efficiency of 78% and 40% over a distance of 78 cm with and without two funnel stages, respectively[259].
The transfer process can be described in three steps: push, funnel and recapture, which is sketched in figure 5.1. A typical sequence is as follows. First the intensity of the CC MOT beams is decreased by a factor of almost 200 within 1 ms, to prevent that the CC MOT counteracts the pushing process. The push beam is switched on
119
Figure 5.1: The scheme of the atom transfer. The initially mm size trapped atom cloud expands to several cm during the transfer. During the pushing phase the CC MOT intensity is decreased. The figure is not to scale.
and the trapped atoms are accelerated with 4· 105m/s2to a velocity of 10 m/s. The acceleration takes 25μs and the atoms are then 125 μm away from the initial position.
The second step is the compression and cooling by the funnel section. The time the atoms spend in the funnel section depends on the push velocity. The third step is the recapture of the atoms in the SC MOT.
The main parameters that determine the transfer efficiency can be understood from a numerical simulation of the transfer process. The results are summarized in figure 5.2. In this figure the atom cloud diameter and transfer efficiency are shown as function of the push velocity. The calculations assume the expansion of a heated atomic cloud as will be explained in detail later. The capture velocity and the beam diameter of the SC MOT determines the fraction of the pushed atoms that can be recaptured. As a first conclusion we see that for a high transfer efficiency a push alone is insufficient to achieve the desired 50% transfer efficiency. We will come back to this figure in section 5.3.
This chapter begins with an overview of the setup used to transfer the atoms in section 5.1. Then the transfer method is described in more detail and in this way we transferred for the first time atoms between the two chambers, which is described in section 5.2. Section 5.3 discusses the optimization and characterization of our transfer method, the alignment of the push beam, its intensity and duration were varied. The chapter ends in section 5.4 with the obtained transfer efficiency and possible strategies to enhance it to achieve the projected transfer efficiency of 50%. As a first step towards this goal an improvement of transfer efficiency using a push beam only was achieved by using a funnel.
5.1 The double MOT system characteristics 121
Figure 5.2: The size of the atom cloud at the SC MOT position for a push beam and a funnel at 22 cm (left axis), the shaded area indicates the initial temperature of 240+240−120μK. The transfer efficiency (right axis) of a push beam without or with either a molasses or a funnel. The laser beam diameter in the receiving SC MOT is taken to be 17 mm is (dotted line).
5.1 The double MOT system characteristics
We start with discussing the main experimental parameters of the double MOT system.
The optical layout can be found in figure 5.3. The Spectra Physics Dye laser laser generates the laser light for the double MOT system and the push beam. The laser is frequency locked to an amplitude modulated spectroscopy setup. An EOM generates sidebands at 1712 MHz and provides the repump power. The CC MOT setup is operated in the cross glass cell with three retro-reflected beams. The SC MOT is operated in a collimated single beam configuration.
The light for the push beam is switched on and off using an AOM and is frequency shifted by+40.0 MHz. The push beam is linearly polarized and has a maximal push power of 14.3± 5 mW. The push beam is aligned on the atom cloud by maximizing the pushing effect in continuous mode. By steadily going down in push power a minimal push power is found. This alignment is used as a starting point for further optimizations.
The non-diffracted beam of the AOM passes a Pockels cell. During the pushing
Figure 5.3: The optical layout of the double MOT system with the push beam for the cross cell setup.
phase, the CC MOT beam intensity is decreased within 1 ms by a factor of 190 by switching the voltage on the Pockels cell, which rotates the linear polarized light by 90◦. The diverted light is used for the funnel section, which is used in a single beam 2D MOT configuration. A quadrupole field gradient is formed by four wires in a hair pin configuration. Two pairs of coils in Helmholtz configuration give an offset field.
Attenuators in front of the beam expander of the funnel section can decrease the laser intensity. The main settings of the double MOT system are summarized in table 5.1.
The laser intensity and detuning are used to calculate the scattering rate of a single atom from the push beam. As can be seen from table 5.1 the minimum intensity of the push beam to push the atoms away continuously is comparable to the intensity of the MOT beams. This can be expected as the detuning of the counterpropagating MOT beam differs by a minus sign from the detuning of the push beam. If both beams have the same intensity the push beam is accelerating the atoms until they have a Doppler shift of 2Γ (corresponding to 12 m/s). The cloud temperatures of both MOT systems have not been measured but are assumed to be around the Doppler limit of 235μK [151], which corresponds to a one-dimensional Gaussian spread of 0.3 m/s and to an average velocity of 0.5 m/s.