Guided and focused slow atomic beam from a 2 dimensional magneto optical trap

We report experimental results which demonstrate how a single laser can be used to both accelerate and guide caesium atoms initially trapped in a two dimensional magneto-optical trap (2D-MOT). The atomic beam size and velocity can be modified using both the laser power and detuning as parameters. In particular, using a 750 mW laser detuned 10 GHz from resonance, we demonstrate that it is possible to focus an atomic beam to a size of 0.4 mm as far as 60 cm from the output of the 2D-MOT with a flux on the order of 3 × 109 atoms/s