Candlestick oven with a silica wick provides an intense collimated cesium atomic beam

Abstract

This article shows that readily available glass and silica fibers and braids are suitable capillary structure for recirculating ovens, such as candlestick ovens, becoming then an alternative wick material to conventional metal based capillary structures. In order to study wettability and capillarity of metallic liquid cesium on borosilicate and silica microstructures, samples were selected, prepared, and tested experimentally. The contact angle of cesium on silica glass was roughly measured: theta = 35 degrees - 10 degrees. A commercially available silica braid was then introduced inside a candlestick oven to transfer the metallic liquid cesium from the cold reservoir to the hot emission point of the candlestick. A collimated cesium atomic beam of intensity of 2 x 10(16) at./s sr was obtained, stable and reproducible. Furthermore, this modified ovenis easy to handle daily.

Rapid production ofR87bBose-Einstein condensates in a combined magnetic and optical potential

“…The oven chamber is thermally isolated from the 120 C oven by a glass thermal break. This oven is not a recirculating design [16,17,18], but we expect that the elevated temperature of the collimation tube with respect to the reservoir keeps the tube free of rubidium.…”

A slow atom source using a collimated effusive oven and a single-layer variable pitch coil Zeeman slower

“…Effusive ovens are typically wasteful with most of the emitted atoms lost into a large solid angle, while only a small central portion of the beam is used. We have previously used rubidium candlestick recirculating ovens to extend the operating lifetime, [9][10][11] but they are relatively complicated to construct, difficult to load with rubidium, and unreliable in establishing proper wicking and recirculating action. Failure of in-vacuum heating elements and thermocouples also caused major loss of operating time.…”

Effusive atomic oven nozzle design using an aligned microcapillary array

“…Recirculating ovens recover atoms that would not enter the trapping region by cooling them to the liquid state and returning them to the oven reservoir. [9][10][11][12][13][14][15] However, such designs add substantial complexity with little to no lifetime increase over multichannel designs.…”