What is an atom trap?

BCIT Magneto-optical Trap

The picture to the below shows the glass vacuum vessel surrounded by a pair magnetic induction coils. The small yellow dot to at the center of the chamber is the glow emitted by about thirty million trapped rubidium atoms.

This image is a close up of the atoms held in a ball about 2 mm in diameter.

 

 

The rubidium atoms are slowed down by a set of mutually perpendicular laser beams and then trapped in place by a magnetic field. Such a small group of very cold atoms exihibits very interesting quantum behaviour which can now be probed and examined in detail.


A brief "hand-wavy" explanation

"To get a picture as to how lasers can slow down atoms, imagine the atoms as little bowling balls bouncing around in a container. The laser beams are composed of little particles of light called photons which the atoms can absorb and re-emit. Every time a photon is absorbed and spontaneously re-emitted, the atom loses a little bit of kinetic energy. If enough photons are absorbed and emitted, the atoms can be slowed down dramatically in much the same way that a rolling bowling ball could be brought to rest by a barrage of ping pong balls.

In our atom trap, six laser beams converge from three orthogonal directions to slow the atoms that happen to pass through the volume where the lasers intersect. To hold and trap the atoms in this region, a magnetic induction field is created by two coils positioned on either side of the overlap volume. The field is arranged so that the magnetic field strength is zero at the center of the trapping volume and increases linearly away from the center (albeit with different gradients in the axial and radial directions in the simplist configuration). Trapping is achieved by carefully controlling the magnetic field, the laser beams' frequency, orientation, and polarization."

For an in-depth, interactive description:

visit the JILA website at the University of Colorado has an excellent description of atom traps and Bose-Einstein Condensates (BECs).

 

What are the advantages of Magneto-Optical Atom Traps?

The old steel atom traps (right) were cruel, and atoms are known to have chewed off valence electrons in attempts to get free. The new magneto-optical traps are much more humane, allowing rubidium atoms to wander free-range with a large mean free path and gentle magneto-optical herding. (RW)

Our rubidium is 100% natural and cholesterol free.

No atoms were injured in the development of this system.

 

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