Loading mechanism in a two-beam magneto-optical trap

Abstract

We present experimental results for the loading of a magneto-optical trap which uses only two focused laser beams, operating with cesium atoms in a vapor cell. We have observed that the performance of the two-beam trap can be strongly improved by just increasing its capture rate without any modification in the trapping potential well. Using this trapping scheme we estimated that about 3 × 107 atoms can be loaded into the trap in a time as short as 70 ms.