Abstract

The Zeeman shift spontaneous force trap^1,2 has been a major advance in the optical trapping of neutral atoms. More than 10⁸ atoms have been trapped, and storage times of minutes have been achieved. We have trapped cesium using inexpensive low power diode lasers, which demonstrates that optical trapping technology can be relatively accessible. As a further step in this direction we trapped atoms in the middle of a low pressure (10⁻⁷-10⁻⁸-Torr) cesium vapor cell.

© 1990 Optical Society of America