Low velocity intense source of rubidium atoms

We constructed a low-velocity intense source of rubidium atoms by using standard vacuum components and diode lasers. The system is based on a vapor-cell magneto optical trap with a hole on one of the waveplates to extract the trapped atoms into a beam. We produced 8 × 10 ⁸ atoms/sec from the source through the 2-mm diameter hole. The total flux was estimated from the fractional absorption of the probe laser beam passing through the atomic beam. The average beam velocity was 11 m/sec, as measured from the Doppler shift. The full divergence of the beam was 6 × 10 ^-2 radian.