Ultrahigh vacuum pressure measurement using magneto-optical trap on atom chip

Abstract

In this work, the UHV background pressure as low as 1.1×10−10 Torr has been measured using the loss rate characteristics of a vapor-loaded magneto-optical trap (MOT) formed on an atom chip in a UHV chamber. The loss rate due to non-rubidium (Rb) gases in the background in the chamber has been estimated by operating the MOT in low cooling beam intensities and low Rb pressure regimes simultaneously. Using this approach, we minimized the contributions of the intra-trap collisions as well as background MOT species collisions to the measured trap loss rate in our setup. These results can be useful for development of cold-atom based UHV pressure standards.