Measurements of the trap lifetime and the number of trapped atoms in a magneto-optical trap (MOT) for 87Rb

Abstract

In this paper, we present our experiments to measure the trap lifetime and the number of trapped atoms in our magneto-optical trap (MOT) for ⁸⁷Rb. Since July 1999, at the University of San Carlos (USC) Department of Physics Optoelectronics Laboratory, we are able to successfully trap ⁸⁷Rb atoms in our MOT using low-power diode lasers.
The motivation for our study is to do research in the field of laser cooling and trapping. With our relatively simple, inexpensive MOT, we hope to do many more experiments on our sample of dense, cold ⁸⁷Rb atoms. We also intend to extend the research to cooled atomic beams for lithography in the near future.