title: An efficient magneto-optical trap of metastable krypton atoms.
abstract: We report a magneto-optical trap of metastable krypton atoms with a trap loading rate of 3×10(11) atoms/s and a trap capture efficiency of 3×10(-5). The system starts with an atomic beam of metastable krypton produced in a liquid-nitrogen cooled, radio-frequency driven discharge. The metastable beam flux emerging from the discharge is 1.5×10(14) atoms/s/sr. The flux in the forward direction is enhanced by a factor of 156 with transverse laser cooling. The atoms are then slowed inside a Zeeman slower before captured by a magneto-optic trap. The trap efficiency can be further improved, possibly to the 10(-2) level, by gas recirculation. Such an atom trap is useful in trace analysis applications where available sample size is limited.
authors.affiliation: Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at Microscale, Department of Chemical Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, 230026 China.
authors.forename: C-F
authors.initials: CF
authors.lastname: Cheng
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.forename: G-M
authors.initials: GM
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Y-R
authors.initials: YR
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Pan
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.forename: A-W
authors.initials: AW
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: S-M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Hu