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Published on: March 30, 2017
Cold atom trap with zero residual magnetic field: the ac magneto-optical trap
Matthew Harvey1, Andrew James Murray
1School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Manchester, Manchester, United Kingdom.
Abstract:
A novel atom trap is described using alternating current to generate the magnetic B field, together with high speed polarization switching of the damping laser field. This combination produces a trap as effective as a standard magneto-optical trap (MOT), with the advantage that the average B field is zero. No net current is hence induced in surrounding conductive elements, and the B field produced by the ac MOT is found to switch off >300 times faster than a conventional MOT. New experiments can hence be performed, including charged particle probing or detection of the cold target ensemble.
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