We present a thorough analysis of a Zeeman slower for sodium atoms made of permanent magnets in a Halbach configuration. Due to the orientation of the magnetic field, the polarisation of the slowing laser beam cannot be purely circular leading to optical leakages into dark states. To circumvent this effect, we propose an atomic state preparation stage able to significantly increase the performances of the Zeeman slower. After a careful theoretical analysis of the problem, we experimentally implement an optical pumping stage leading to an increase of the magneto-optical trap loading rate by 3.5. Such method is easy to set up and could be extended to other Zeeman slower architectures.
We have compared different time profiles for the trajectory of the centre of a quadrupole magnetic trap designed for the transport of cold sodium atoms. Our experimental observations show that a smooth profile characterized by an analytical expression involving the error function minimizes the transport duration while limiting atom losses and heating of the trapped gas. Using numerical calculations of single atom classical trajectories within the trap, we show that this observation can be qualitatively interpreted as a trade-off between two types of losses: finite depth of the confinement and Majorana spin flips.
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