Evidence of sympathetic cooling of Na+ ions by a Na magneto-optical trap in a hybrid trap

Abstract

A hybrid ion-neutral trap provides an ideal system to study collisional dynamics between ions and neutral atoms. This system provides a general cooling method that can be applied to species that do not have optically accessible transitions and can also potentially cool internal degrees of freedom. The long-range polarization potentials (V/r4) between ions and neutrals result in large scattering cross sections at cold temperatures, making the hybrid trap a favorable system for efficient sympathetic cooling of ions by collisions with neutral atoms. We present experimental evidence of sympathetic cooling of trapped Na+ ions, which are closed shell and therefore do not have a laser-induced atomic transition from the ground state, by equal-mass cold Na atoms in a magneto-optical trap. ©2012 American Physical Society.