Very cold trapped atoms in a vapor cell

We have produced a very cold sample of spin-polarired trapprd atoms. The technique used dramatically simplifies the production of laser-cooled atoms. In this experiment. 1.8 ⨯ 107neutral cesium atoms were optically captured directly from a low-pressure vapor in ii small glass cell. We then cooled the < 1-mm3cloud of trapped atoms and loaded i t into a lowfield magnetic trap in the same cell. The magnetically trapped atoms had an effective temperature as low as 1.1 ± 0.2 μK, which is the lowest kinetic temperature ever observed and far colder than any previous sample of trapped atoms.

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Author Hugh Robinson Physics