Comparative analysis of recirculating and collimating cesium ovens.

We have performed a study of several cesium oven designs. A comparison between recirculating (or sticking-wall) and collimating (or re-emitting-wall) ovens is made in order to extract the most efficient design in terms of beam brightness. Unfortunately, non-reproducible behaviors have been observed, and the most often observed output flux is similar to the sticking-wall case, which is the lowest theoretical value of the two cases, with a beam brightness close to 10 at.

Watt-level narrow-linewidth fibered laser source at 852 nm for FIB application.

We realize a 1 W all-fibered polarized compact and robust laser source at 852 nm for laser cooling of cesium atoms. The architecture is based on the sum-frequency generation of 1540 and 1908 nm lasers, realized through a periodically poled lithium niobate waveguide with a conversion efficiency of 40%. A linewidth of 20 kHz is achieved with the development of a distributed feedback fiber laser at 1908 nm.

A new setup for localized implantation and live-characterization of keV energy multiply charged ions at the nanoscale.

An innovative experimental setup, PELIICAEN, allowing the modification of materials and the study of the effects induced by multiply charged ion beams at the nanoscale is presented. This ultra-high vacuum (below 5 × 10 mbar) apparatus is equipped with a focused ion beam column using multiply charged ions and a scanning electron microscope developed by Orsay Physics, as well as a scanning probe microscope. The dual beam approach coupled to the scanning probe microscope achieves nanometer scale in situ topological analysis of the surface modifications induced by the ion beams.

Ion microscopy based on laser-cooled cesium atoms.

We demonstrate a prototype of a Focused Ion Beam machine based on the ionization of a laser-cooled cesium beam and adapted for imaging and modifying different surfaces in the few-tens nanometer range. Efficient atomic ionization is obtained by laser promoting ground-state atoms into a target excited Rydberg state, then field-ionizing them in an electric field gradient. The method allows obtaining ion currents up to 130pA.

Cooperative excitation and many-body interactions in a cold Rydberg gas.

The dipole blockade of Rydberg excitations is a hallmark of the strong interactions between atoms in these high-lying quantum states [M. Saffman, T. G.