Progress toward creation of a Rb-87 MOT to be loaded directly into a wide-range accordion lattice

We report on our progress toward creation of a Rb-87 three-dimensional magneto-optical trap (3D MOT) to be loaded directly into an optical lattice. Preliminary calculations suggest the feasibility of achieving an approximate 10$^{2}$ increase in phase space density by combining standard optical molasses techniques with spatial density compression of a 3D MOT with an accordion lattice.\footnote{J.H. Huckans, Univ. of Maryland doctoral dissertation (2006).}$^,$\footnote{L. Fallani et al., Opt. Express 13, 4303-4313 (2005).}$^,$\footnote{T.C. Li et al., Opt. Express 16, 5465-5470 (2008).}$^,$\footnote{R.A. Williams et al., Opt. Express 16, 16977-16983 (2008).}