Phys. Rev. Lett. 98, 223002 (2007) [4 pages]

Trapping of Rb Atoms by ac Electric Fields

Abstract

References

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Sophie Schlunk^1,2,*, Adela Marian¹, Peter Geng¹, Allard P. Mosk^2,†, Gerard Meijer¹, and Wieland Schöllkopf^1,‡
¹Fritz-Haber-Institut der Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, Faradayweg 4-6, 14195 Berlin, Germany
²FOM-Institute for Plasmaphysics Rijnhuizen, P.O. Box 1207, 3430 BE Nieuwegein, The Netherlands

Received 14 February 2007; published 30 May 2007

We demonstrate trapping of an ultracold gas of neutral atoms in a macroscopic ac electric trap. Three-dimensional confinement is obtained by switching between two saddle-point configurations of the electric field. Stable trapping is observed in a narrow range of switching frequencies around 60 Hz. The dynamic confinement of the atoms is directly visualized at different phases of the ac switching cycle. We observe about 10⁵ Rb atoms in the 1 mm³ large and several microkelvins deep trap with a lifetime of approximately 5 s.

URL:

http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.98.223002

DOI:

10.1103/PhysRevLett.98.223002

PACS:

32.80.Pj, 32.60.+i, 33.80.Ps, 39.25.+k

^*Electronic address: schlunk@fhi-berlin.mpg.de

^†Present address: Mesa⁺ Institute for Nanotechnology, University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands.

^‡Electronic address: wschoell@fhi-berlin.mpg.de

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Phys. Rev. Lett. 98, 223002 (2007) [4 pages]

Trapping of Rb Atoms by ac Electric Fields