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    Compact continuous cold atomic beam from a single cell with three-dimensional cooling and ultralow light shift

    Sheng-Zhe Wang (王圣哲)1,2, Qian-Lan Cai (蔡千澜)1,2, Zhi-Xin Meng (孟至欣)3, Yi-Cheng Deng (邓意成)3, and Yan-Ying Feng (冯焱颖)1,2,*

    • *Contact author: yyfeng@tsinghua.edu.cn

    Phys. Rev. Applied 25, 044036 – Published 14 April, 2026

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/drkr-8mh2

    Abstract

    We report a compact single-cell source of a continuous cold-atom beam with three-dimensional (3D) cooling. By integrating an off-axis moving optical molasses (OM) with a two-dimensional magneto-optical trap, we achieve simultaneous 3D cooling within a 50mm interaction region. The source delivers a continuous flux up to 4.9(5)×109atoms/s, with a transverse temperature of 94(5)μK, a longitudinal temperature as low as 231(65)μK, and a tunable mean velocity between 5 and 20m/s. Custom in-vacuum mirrors integrate the reflective geometry for the off-axis OM beams with a 0.8mm output aperture, ensuring stable alignment while suppressing stray light and fluorescence leakage. Ultralow light shift and decoherence are verified via continuous Raman-Ramsey interferometry, yielding a light shift of −0.51(4)Hz and a typical fringe contrast of 90.85(30)% at a Raman separation of 100mm (interrogation time of 8.70ms). This compact continuous cold-atom beam source constitutes a practical building block for atomic-beam clocks and interferometers, enabling reduced aliasing noise together with improved sensitivity and accuracy for field applications.

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