Enhanced cold mercury atom production with two-dimensional magneto-optical trap

Abstract

A cold atom source is important for quantum metrology and precision measurement. To reduce the quantum projection noise limit in optical lattice clock, one can increase the number of cold atoms and reduce the dead time by enhancing the loading rate. In this work, we realize an enhanced cold mercury atom source based on a two-dimensional (2D) magneto-optical trap (MOT). The vacuum system is composed of two titanium chambers connected with a differential pumping tube. Two stable cooling laser systems are adopted for the 2D-MOT and the three-dimensional (3D)-MOT, respectively. Using an optimized 2D-MOT and push beam, about 1.3×106 atoms, which are almost an order of magnitude higher than using a pure 3D-MOT, are loaded into the 3D-MOT for 202Hg atoms. This enhanced cold mercury atom source is helpful in increasing the frequency stability of a neutral mercury lattice clock.