Sub-second Sub-Watt Atomic Oven Design for Ion Trapping

We demonstrate a novel design of atomic ovens with lower Size, Weight, and Power (SWaP), optimized for trapped-ion precision measurements and quantum computers. In these applications, ovens are used to produce a beam of neutral atoms which can be ionized and trapped. Low SWaP ovens would be particularly advantageous for deployed applications such as space atomic clocks. Many existing designs are based on evaporation from crucibles with high thermal mass, requiring several watts of power to operate and several minutes to turn on or off.  Our design is based on a 0.84 mm diameter tantalum disk used as a hot plate to evaporate the element of interest, operates with less than 1 W, and turns on and off in less than 1 s.  We demonstrate and characterize ovens for calcium and magnesium.