Magnetic field tomography

Neutral atoms may be trapped via the interaction of their magnetic dipole moment with magnetic field gradients. One of the possible schemes is the cloverleaf trap. It is often desirable to have at hand a fast and precise technique for measuring the magnetic field distribution. We use for instantaneous imaging the equipotential lines of the magnetic field a diagnostic tool which is based on spatially resolved observation of the fluorescence emitted by a hot beam of sodium atoms crossing a thin slice of resonant laser light within the magnetic field region to be investigated. The inhomogeneous magnetic field spatially modulates the resonance condition between the Zeeman-shifted hyperfine sublevels and the laser light and therefore the amount of scattered photons. We apply this technique for mapping the field of our cloverleaf trap in three dimensions under various conditions. Received 20 March 2001 and Received in final form 12 May 2001