A compact high-flux grating chip cold atom source

Abstract Diffraction gratings have simplified the optical implementation of magneto-optical traps (MOTs) to require only a single input beam, however reaching high atom number and fast loading has proven to be a challenge. We equipped an atom chip with a grating surface and paired it with a velocity-tunable 2D + -MOT as an atomic source to facilitate efficient loading together with magnetic trapping. Using uniform grating illumination, we magneto-optically trap <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" overflow="scroll"> <mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mn>1.0</mml:mn> <mml:mo stretchy="false">(</mml:mo> <mml:mn>1</mml:mn> <mml:mo stretchy="false">)</mml:mo> <mml:mo>×</mml:mo> <mml:msup> <mml:mn>10</mml:mn> <mml:mrow> <mml:mn>9</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> </mml:msup> </mml:mrow> <mml:mstyle scriptlevel="0"/> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>atoms</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> </mml:mrow> </mml:math> within one second, cool them to <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" overflow="scroll"> <mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mn>14.1</mml:mn> <mml:mo stretchy="false">(</mml:mo> <mml:mn>3</mml:mn> <mml:mo stretchy="false">)</mml:mo> </mml:mrow> <mml:mstyle scriptlevel="0"/> <mml:mi>μ</mml:mi> <mml:mtext>K</mml:mtext> </mml:mrow> </mml:math> , and transfer a quarter of them into the magnetic chip trap. This is a key step towards simple portable quantum sensors employing (ultra-)cold atoms.