2025/12/16 by Edward Gheorghita, Gheorghita, Edward, Sebastian Wald +5
Physics and Astronomy · #Atomic and Subatomic Physics Research #Cold Atom Physics and Bose-Einstein Condensates #FOS: Physical sciences #Mechanical and Optical Resonators #Quantum Physics (quant-ph)
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2512.14528
openalex publication_date 2025/12/16 · openalex created_date 2025/12/18 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Continuously operating atom-light interfaces represent a key prerequisite for steady-state quantum sensors and efficient quantum processors. Here, we demonstrate continuous accumulation of sub-Doppler-cooled atoms in a shallow intracavity dipole trap, realizing this regime. The key ingredient is a light-shift manipulation that creates spatially varying cooling parameters, enabling efficient capture and accumulation of atoms within a cavity mode. Demonstrated with rubidium atoms, a continuous flux from a source cell is funneled through the magneto-optical trap into the cavity mode, where the atoms are cooled and maintained below 10~μK in steady state without time-sequenced operation. We characterize the resulting continuously maintained ensemble of millions of atoms and its collective coupling to the cavity field, establishing a route toward continuously operated cavity-QED systems and long-duration atomic and hybrid quantum sensors.