Efficient magneto-optical trapping of a metastable helium gas

¹ Laboratoire Kastler Brossel (Unité de Recherche de l'École Normale Supérieure et de l'Université Pierre et Marie Curie, associée au CNRS (UMR 8552)) , Département de Physique de l'École Normale Supérieure, 24 rue Lhomond, 75231 Paris Cedex 05, France
² Laboratoire de Physique des Lasers (UMR 7538 du CNRS) , Université Paris Nord, avenue J.B. Clément, 93430 Villetaneuse, France
³ Dept. of Physics, Univ. of Perugia, Via Pascoli, Perugia, Italy and Lens and INFM, L.go E. Fermi 2, Firenze, Italy
⁴ Universität Hannover, Welfengarten 1, 30167 Hannover, Germany
⁵ TIFR, Homi Bhabha Road, Mumbai 400005, India

Corresponding author: franck.pereira-dos-santos@lkb.ens.fr

Received: 8 September 2000
Revised: 15 January 2001
Accepted: 15 January 2001
Published online: 15 April 2001

Abstract

This article presents a new experiment aiming at BEC of metastable helium atoms. It describes the design of a high flux discharge source of atoms and a robust laser system using a DBR diode coupled with a high power Yb doped fiber amplifier for manipulating the beam of metastable atoms. The atoms are trapped in a small quartz cell in an extreme high vacuum. The trapping design uses an additional laser (repumper) and allows the capture of a large number of metastable helium atoms (approximately 10⁹) in a geometry favorable for loading a tight magnetostatic trap.