Loading mechanism for atomic guides

Summary form only given. Small guides can produce very strong confining fields but the transfer of cold atoms from a magneto optical trap (MOT) into such guides present a problem. This is because MOTs require a fixed trapping volume of /spl sim/ 1 cm/sup 3/ and cannot be miniaturized in the same way as atom guides. We demonstrate the loading of atoms from a cycled MOT into a tapered magnetic atom guide that overlaps with the MOT. This integrated loading strategy involves the formation of a MOT directly inside the atom guide.