A versatile dual-species Zeeman slower for caesium and ytterbium

Comparative analysis of recirculating and collimating cesium ovens

We have performed a study of several cesium oven designs. A comparison between recirculating (or sticking-wall) and collimating (or re-emitting-wall) ovens is made in order to extract the most efficient design in terms of beam brightness. Unfortunately, non-reproducible behaviors have been observed, and the most often observed output flux is similar to the sticking-wall case, which is the lowest theoretical value of the two cases, with a beam brightness close to 10¹⁸ at. sr^-1 s^-1 cm^-2. The reason of this universally observed behavior is unclear despite having tested several materials for the collimating tube. Conclusion on possible improved design based on sticking of cesium on several (un)cleaned surfaces is given.

Tunable homogeneous kG magnetic field production using permanent magnets

We present a permanent ring magnet arrangement that can achieve a tunable axial magnetic field from 1.80(5) to 2.67(9) kG. The apparatus has been designed to accommodate a cylindrical atomic vapor cell of length 25 mm and diameter 25 mm to lie within the bore of the ring magnets, providing an alternative route for imaging through atomic vapors in large magnetic fields. The measured axial magnetic field has an rms variation of less than 4% over the length of vapor cell, while the calculated field inhomogeneity is less than 5% radially and 12% longitudinally across a cylindrical volume with diameter 20 mm and length 25 mm. The instrument consists of layered concentric off-the-shelf N42 neodymium-iron-boron axially magnetized ring magnets. The magnets are organized into four cylindrical brass holders, whose relative separation can be manipulated to achieve the desired magnetic field strength. We present magnetic field computations and Marquardt-Levenberg fits to experimental data and demonstrate excellent agreement between theory and experiment.