Toptica Photonics has introduced its miniMOT commercial kit for producing magneto-optical traps (MOTs), developed in partnership with ColdQuanta Inc. The kit consists of a small vacuum system with a glass cell, an ion pump and a rubidium dispenser.
Magneto-optical traps - the most popular laser cooling and trapping set-up - require a vacuum system with optical access that contains the atomic species to be trapped and a magnetic quadrupole field. All this is now available in a compact setup. Together with narrow linewidth, frequency-stabilised Toptica lasers (TA pro, DL pro, DL DFB), spectroscopy modules and locking electronics, a running MOT can easily be realised. Laser-cooled and trapped atoms are modern instruments for high precision measurements, fundamental research and student education.