Collisional loss of atoms from a far-off resonance optical dipole trap
- Univ. of Texas, Austin, TX (United States)
We have confined up to 10{sup 4} {sup 85}Rb atoms in an optical dipole force trap operating up to 65 nm from atomic resonance. For detunings greater than 16 nm, we obtained long confinement times, limited only by background gas collisions, without additional cooling. However, for trapping laser tunings between 4 nm and 16 nm to the red of the lowest Rb (D1) resonance, we observed a novel trap loss mechanism which results in much shorter-trap lifetimes. The trap loss rate is very sensitive to the laser wavelength, and exhibits a complex spectrum. This trap loss may arise from a photo-associative collisional process in which an initially free pair of colliding ground state atoms is promoted to a bound molecular excited state. The bound excited molecule could then be lost from the trap by photoionization, or by spontaneous decay to an untrapped ground state. The results of our preliminary experiments and of further experiments to clarify this novel trap loss process will be presented.
- OSTI ID:
- 281600
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-9305421-; ISSN 0003-0503; TRN: 96:019530
- Journal Information:
- Bulletin of the American Physical Society, Vol. 38, Issue 3; Conference: 1993 American Physical Society annual meeting on atomic, molecular, and topical physics, Reno, NV (United States), 16-19 May 1993; Other Information: PBD: May 1993
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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