A new mini-magnetic lens proposal for coverging the clod atoms

Abstract

A mini-magnetic lens for laser-cooled rubidium atoms is experimentally demonstrated in this paper. The key component of the mini-magnetic lens is a mini-coil with a radius of 2 mm. When the cold atomic clouds are transported in the vicinity of the coil along its axial, they are compressed in the longitudinal direction due to the interaction with the non-uniform magnetic field of the coil. Given a current carrying time of about 10 ms, the atomic clouds tend to be gradually compressed in the axial direction with the increase of the coil current. When the coil current is greater than 0.9 A, the atomic clouds begin to expand. At a threshold value of 0.9 A, the focus length of the mini-magnetic lens is determined to be about 1.3 mm. Compared with the case that no current passes through the mini-coil, the dimension of the focused atom clouds is one order of magnitude smaller. Moreover, the focus length can be controlled by both the coil current and its carrying time. Numerical simulations are also given which are in agreement with the experimental results.