Intense slow beams of bosonic potassium isotopes

We report on an experimental realization of a two-dimensional magneto-optical trap (2D-MOT) that allows the generation of cold atomic beams of K39 and K41 bosonic potassium isotopes. The high measured fluxes up to 1.0×10¹¹atoms/s and low atomic velocities around 33m/s are well suited for a fast and reliable three-dimensional magneto-optical trap loading, a basilar feature for new generation experiments on Bose-Einstein condensation of dilute atomic samples. We also present a simple multilevel theoretical model for the calculation of the light-induced force acting on an atom moving in a MOT. The model gives a good agreement between predicted and measured flux and velocity values for our 2D-MOT.