A High Intensity Cold Atom Source

Continuous, high intensity cold atomic beams are excellent sources for precision measurement experiments and atom optics applications. Laser cooling and buffer gas-based methods are already well developed, but new methods that could potentially provide higher brightness beams are still of interest. We present our work on a new approach based on continuous post-nozzle injection of lithium atoms into a supersonic helium jet. We reduce the jet velocity to 200 m/s by cryogenically cooling the helium nozzle and extract the lithium atoms with magnetic focusing. The focused beam has a peak intensity of 7*10$^{\mathrm{10}}$ cm$^{\mathrm{-2\thinspace }}$s$^{\mathrm{-1}}$ and a temperature of 20 mK in the moving frame. Ongoing efforts to increase the beam brightness will be discussed as well as work towards the development and construction of a magnetic storage ring for the cold atoms.~