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light-emitting optical fibers
Masaharu Hyodo, Kazuyuki Nakayama, Ryuzo Ohmukai, A fiber-optic mirror magneto-optical trap (mirror-MOT) that uses a pair of circularly polarized lightemitting optical fibers as an optical access is demonstrated. The fiber is fabricated so that a length of birefringence fiber, designed to be a quarter wave retarder at both wavelengths of 780 and 852 nm, is attached directly onto a polarization-maintaining normal fiber. The polarization states of light emitted from the fibers are sufficiently circular for the operation of a mirror-MOT with 87Rb atoms. The mirror-MOT is able to capture approximately the same number of atoms obtainable with a conventional mirror-MOT. The technique makes it possible to fabricate a compact MOT apparatus by introducing the optical fibers directly into an ultrahigh-vacuum chamber. 2006 Optical Society of America |