Compact continuous cold atomic beam from a single cell with three-dimensional cooling and ultralow light shift
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 interaction region. The source delivers a continuous flux up to , with a transverse temperature of , a longitudinal temperature as low as , and a tunable mean velocity between 5 and . Custom in-vacuum mirrors integrate the reflective geometry for the off-axis OM beams with a 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 and a typical fringe contrast of at a Raman separation of (interrogation time of ). 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.