Trapping of Rb atoms by ac electric fields
Abstract
We demonstrate trapping of an ultracold gas of neutral atoms in a macroscopic ac electric trap. Three-dimensional confinement is obtained by switching between two saddle-point configurations of the electric field. Stable trapping is observed in a narrow range of switching frequencies around 60 Hz. The dynamic confinement of the atoms is directly visualized at different phases of the ac switching cycle. We observe about 105 Rb atoms in the 1 mm3 large and several microkelvins deep trap with a lifetime of approximately 5 s.
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