Dual Hg-Rb magneto-optical trap reported in Optics Express

The HgRb team reported the world’s first dual HgRb trap! You can see the paper here: https://doi.org/10.1364/OE.25.003165

The manuscript presents a two-species laser cooling apparatus capable of simultaneously collecting Rb and Hg atomic gases into a magneto-optical trap (MOT). The atomic sources, laser system, and vacuum set-up are described. While there is a loss of Rb atoms in the MOT due to photoionization by the Hg cooling laser, we show that it does not prevent simultaneous trapping of Rb and Hg. We also demonstrate interspecies collision-induced losses in the 87Rb-202Hg system.