Planar-Integrated Magneto-Optical Trap
Liang Chen, Chang-Jiang Huang, Xin‐Biao Xu, Yichen Zhang, Dong-Qi Ma, Zheng‐Tian Lu, Zhu-Bo Wang, Guang-Jie Chen, Ji-Zhe Zhang, Hong X. Tang, Chun‐Hua Dong, Wen Liu, Guo‐Yong Xiang, Guang‐Can Guo, Chang‐Ling Zou
Abstract
The magneto-optical trap (MOT) is an essential tool for collecting and preparing cold atoms with a wide range of applications. We demonstrate a planar-integrated MOT by combining an optical grating chip with a magnetic coil chip. The flat grating chip simplifies the conventional six-beam configuration down to a single laser beam, and the flat coil chip replaces the conventional anti-Helmholtz coils of cylindrical geometry. Up to ${10}^{6}$ cold ${}^{87}\mathrm{Rb}$ atoms are trapped by the planar-integrated MOT, with the atom cloud being approximately $6\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}\mathrm{mm}$ above the chip surface. This configuration effectively reduces the volume, weight, and complexity of the MOT, bringing benefits to applications including gravimeter, clock, and quantum memory devices.