The cloverleaf trap is a variation of the Ioffe-Pritchard trap in which the Ioffe bars have been replaced by 8 "cloverleaf" coils. This design places all of the magnetic coils in two planes, allowing 360 degree optical access to the trapped atoms. The other major difference between the cloverleaf and the standard Ioffe-Pritchard trap is the addition of an "anti-bias" coil which reduces the magnetic field at the traps central minimum. This has the effect of increasing the radial confinement of the trap, since the gradient fields produced by the cloverleaves add in quadrature with the bias field.

To view a diagram of the cloverleaf trap, click on the next icon. To view a picture of our cloverleaf coils, click on the second image.

CLOVERLEAF DIAGRAM (31 kB)

CLOVERLEAF PICTURE (94 kB)