Efficient loading of thulium atoms in a compact MOT for a transportable optical clock

Abstract

We report on building of a compact vacuum chamber for spectroscopy of ultracold thulium and trapping of up to 13 million atoms. Compactness is achieved by obviating a classical Zeeman slower section and placing an atomic oven close to a magneto-optical trap (MOT), specifically at the distance of 11 cm. In this configuration, we significantly gained in solid angle of an atomic beam, which is affected by MOT laser beams, and reached 1 million atoms loaded directly in the MOT. By exploiting Zeeman-like deceleration of atoms with an additional laser beam, we increased the number of trapped atoms to 6 million. Then we gained an extra factor of 2 by tailoring the MOT magnetic field gradient with an additional small magnetic coil. Demonstrated results show great perspective of the developed setup for realizing a compact high-performance optical atomic clock based on thulium atoms.