Recently, we had to replace the lithium oven on our experiment. The reason was simple: the atom number in the MOT had become suspiciously low, and the oven nozzle turned out to be clogged.
So my colleague Felix Lang and I took the oven apart, removed the old heating tape and aluminum foil, and prepared a fresh lithium charge.
The new oven was loaded with enriched lithium-6, which has a interesting nuclear-physics backstory, and was cut under an argon atmosphere using kitchen knifes.
After reattaching the oven, we leak-tested everything carefully with a helium leak tester.
The old nozzle clearly showed why the MOT had been struggling.
After backing the system for a few days to reach low pressures, we could again see fluorescence from the lithium atomic beam coming out of the nozzle.
And finally, the MOT came back as well.
