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arXiv:0905.2402 · Optics Letters

Zeeman slowing of thulium atoms

K. Chebakov, A. Sokolov, A. Akimov, D. Sukachev, S. Kanorsky, N. Kolachevsky, V. Sorokin

Published Sep 22, 2009• 13 citations
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Abstract

We demonstrate laser slowing of a hot thulium atomic beam using the nearly closed cycling transition 4f(13)6s(2)((2)F(o))(J=7/2)<-->4f(12)((3)H(5))5d(3/2)6s(2)(J=9/2) at 410.6 nm. Atoms are decelerated to velocities around 25 m/s by a 40 cm Zeeman slower. The flux of slowed atoms is evaluated as 10(7) s(-1)cm(-2). The experiment explicitly indicates the possibility of trapping Tm atoms in a magneto-optical trap.

DOI
10.1364/ol.34.002955

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Sub-Doppler laser cooling in a magneto-optical trap for thulium atoms at a wavelength of 410.6 nm has been experimentally studied. Without any dedicated molasses period of sub-Doppler cooling, the cloud of 3 × 106 atoms at a temperature of 25(5) μK was observed. The measured temperature is significantly lower than the Doppler limit of 240 μK for the cooling transition at 410.6 nm. The high efficiency of the sub-Doppler cooling process is due to a near-degeneracy of the Landé g-factors of the lower 4f 136s 2 (J = 7/2) and the upper 4f 125d 3/26s 2 (J = 9/2) cooling levels.

arXiv:1012.5433•Journal of Experimental and Theoretical Physics Letters•Nov 1, 2010•23 citations
We demonstrate laser slowing of a hot thulium atomic beam using the nearly closed cycling transition 4f(13)6s(2)((2)F(o))(J=7/2)<-->4f(12)((3)H(5))5d(3/2)6s(2)(J=9/2) at 410.6 nm. Atoms are decelerated to velocities around 25 m/s by a 40 cm Zeeman slower. The flux of slowed atoms is evaluated as 10(7) s(-1)cm(-2). The experiment explicitly indicates the possibility of trapping Tm atoms in a magneto-optical trap.
We demonstrate laser slowing of a hot thulium atomic beam using the nearly closed cycling transition 4f136s2 ( 2F ◦)(J = 7/2) ↔ 4f12 ( 3H5)5d3/26s2 (J = 9/2) at 410.6nm. Atoms are decelerated to velocities around 25m/s by a 40cm Zeeman slower. The flux of slowed atoms is evaluated as 107 s−1cm−2. The experiment explicitly indicates the possibility of trapping Tm atoms in a magneto-optical trap. c ○ 2009 Optical Society of America OCIS codes: 140.3320, 300.6360 Cooling of any new atomic species opens new horizons for spectroscopy, atomic and quantum physics, degenerate gas study and some technical applications. Compared to buffer gas cooling demonstrated for a variety of atoms and molecules (see e.g. [1]), laser cooling is not universal, but gives more selectivity and control on atoms also typically allowing for lower temperatures. Depending on the level structure and atomic properties as well as availability of laser sources, an individual approach to each
Thulium atoms are trapped in a magneto-optical trap using a strong transition at 410410410 nm with a small branching ratio. We trap up to $7\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{4}$ atoms at a temperature of 0.8(2)0.8(2)0.8(2) mK after deceleration in a 404040-cm-long Zeeman slower. Optical leaks from the cooling cycle influence the lifetime of atoms in the magneto-optical trap which varies between 0.30.30.3 and 1.51.51.5 s in our experiments. The lower limit for the leaking rate from the upper cooling level is measured to be 22(6)22(6)22(6) ${\mathrm{s}}^{\ensuremath{-}1}$. The repumping laser transferring the atomic population out of the F=3F=3F=3 hyperfine ground-state sublevel gives a 3030%30 increase for the lifetime and the number of atoms in the trap.
The possibility of laser cooling of thulium atoms is considered. The hyperfine structure of almost cyclic 4f 13 6s 2 ( J g = 7/2) ↔ 4f 12 5d 3/2 6s 2 ( J e = 9/2) and 4f 13 6s 2 ( J g = 7/2) ↔ 4f 12 5d 5/2 6s 2 ( J e = 9/2) transitions at 410.6 and 420.4 nm, respectively, is studied by the method of sub-Doppler saturation spectroscopy in counterpropagating laser beams. The hyperfine splitting of excited levels involved in these transitions is measured and the natural linewidths of these transitions are determined. The structure of the neighbouring 4f 13 6s6p ( J e = 5/2) and 4f 12 5d 5/2 6s 2 ( J e = 7/2) levels is studied for the first time by this method. The decay probabilities of the J e = 9/2 levels via channels removing atoms from the cooling cycle are calculated. It is found that the branching ratio for the strong transition at 410.6 nm ( A = 6 × 10 7 s -1 ) is smaller than 2 × 10 -5 , which makes this transition most promising for laser cooling. The laser cooling of atoms in a Zeeman cooler at this transition is simulated. The possibility of using a laser-cooled cloud of thulium atoms to study the metrological transition at 1.14 μm is discussed.
We have developed a compact vacuum system for laser cooling and spectroscopy of neutral thulium atoms. Compactness is achieved by obviating a classical Zeeman slower section and placing an atomic oven close to a magneto-optical trap (MOT), specifically at the distance of 11 cm. In this configuration, we significantly gained in solid angle of an atomic beam, which is affected by MOT laser beams, and reached 1 million atoms loaded directly in the MOT with only 15 mW of MOT cooling beams net power. By exploiting Zeeman-like deceleration of atoms with an additional laser beam and tailoring the MOT magnetic field gradient with a small magnetic coil, we demonstrated trapping of up to 13 million atoms. These results show great perspective of the developed setup for realizing a compact high-performance optical atomic clock based on thulium atoms.
Full text: It has been shown recently that Yb and Er atoms from the lanthanides group can be efficiently laser-cooled using strong transitions near 400 nm. Degenerate Fermi gases of ytterbium have been also recently demonstrated using laser-cooling based technic. Our goal was to investigate the possibility of laser cooling of Tm atom. Among other lanthanides, thulium possesses relatively simple level structure.Moreover, it has only one stable isotope {sup 169}Tm with a nuclear spin of I = 1/2 which makes possible to use schemes for sub-Doppler cooling. Laser-cooled thulium is a favorable candidate for optical clocks applications, since the forbidden transition between the fine structure sublevels (J{sub g} 5=2) - (J'{sub g} = 7/2) of the ground state 4f{sup 13}6s{sup 2} ({lambda} = 1.14 micron) has a spectral width of approximately 1 Hz. The collisional shift of such kind of transitions in lanthanides is suppressed because of the outer closed 6s{sup 2} shell, which allows for precision spectroscopy in a dense atomic cloud. We studied two candidates for cooling transitions from the ground state 4f{sup 13}6s{sup 2} (J{sub g} 7/2) to the states 4f{sup 12}({sup 3}H{sub 5})5d{sub 3/2}6s{sup 2} (J{sub e} = 9/2) at 410.6 nm and 4f{sup 12}({sup 3}F{sub 4})5d{sub 5/2}6s{sup 2} (J{sub e} = 9/2) at 420.4 nm. By means of saturation absorption spectroscopy, we measured the hyperfine structure and rates of these transitions. We evaluated the life times of appropriate excited levels as 15.9(8) ns and 48(6) ns, respectively. Decay rates from these levels to neighboring opposite-parity levels were evaluated by means of Hartree-Fock calculations. The fraction of atoms which do not return to the ground state is about 10{sup -5} and 5 {center_dot} 10{sup -4} for the 410.6 nm and 420.4 nm transitions respectively. We conclude that the strong transition at 410.6 nm with relative slow leakage rate can be used for the efficient cooling of Tm I. We also measured hyperfine structure of two nearby transitions from the ground state to the states 4f{sup 13}({sup 2}F{sub 7/2})6s6p({sup 1}P{sub 1}) (J{sub e} 5/2) at 409.4 nm and 4f{sup 12}({sup 3}F{sub 4})5d{sub 5/2}6s{sup 2} (J{sub e} = 7/2) at 418.9 nm, which can be used for {lambda}-type excitation of {lambda} = 1.14 {mu}m transition. (author)
Sub-Doppler laser cooling in a magneto-optical trap for thulium atoms at a wavelength of 410.6 nm has been experimentally studied. Without any dedicated molasses period of sub-Doppler cooling, the cloud of 3 × 106 atoms at a temperature of 25(5) μK was observed. The measured temperature is significantly lower than the Doppler limit of 240 μK for the cooling transition at 410.6 nm. The high efficiency of the sub-Doppler cooling process is due to a near-degeneracy of the Landé g-factors of the lower 4f 136s 2 (J = 7/2) and the upper 4f 125d 3/26s 2 (J = 9/2) cooling levels.