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arXiv:1003.0877 · Physical Review A

Magneto-optical trap for thulium atoms

Денис Дмитриевич Сукачев, А. В. Соколов, K. Chebakov, Alexey V. Akimov, S. I. Kanorsky, N. Kolachevsky, В. Н. Сорокин

Published Jul 28, 2010• 98 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Thulium atoms are trapped in a magneto-optical trap using a strong transition at $410$ nm with a small branching ratio. We trap up to $7\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{4}$ atoms at a temperature of $0.8(2)$ mK after deceleration in a $40$-cm-long Zeeman slower. Optical leaks from the cooling cycle influence the lifetime of atoms in the magneto-optical trap which varies between $0.3$ and $1.5$ s in our experiments. The lower limit for the leaking rate from the upper cooling level is measured to be $22(6)$ ${\mathrm{s}}^{\ensuremath{-}1}$. The repumping laser transferring the atomic population out of the $F=3$ hyperfine ground-state sublevel gives a $30%$ increase for the lifetime and the number of atoms in the trap.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.82.011405

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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×\else\texttimes\fi1047\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{4}7\ifmmode×\else\texttimes\fi104 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) s\ensuremath−1{\mathrm{s}}^{\ensuremath{-}1}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.
We demonstrated laser cooling and trapping of thulium atoms at sub-Doppler temperatures in a magneto-optical trap (MOT). Up to 3 × 10 6 thulium atoms were trapped in the MOT at temperatures down to 25(5) μK which is approximately 10 times lower than the Doppler limit. The lifetime of atoms in the MOT varied between 0.3–1.5 s and was restricted mostly by optical leaks from the upper cooling level. The lower limit for the leaking rate was estimated to be 22(6) s −1 . Due to a big magnetic moment of Tm atoms, a part of them were trapped in a magnetic trap from the quadrupole field of the MOT. We observed about 3 × 10 4 purely magnetically trapped atoms at temperature of 25 μK with a lifetime in the trap of 0.5 s. Also we set up a “dark” MOT consisting of six crossed hollow beams which increased the number of trapped atoms by a factor of 5 leading to 1.5 × 10 7 atoms at the expense of higher temperature.
For the first time ultra-cold thulium atoms were trapped in a magnetic quadrupole trap with a small field gradient (20 Gs cm -1 ). The atoms were loaded from a cloud containing 4 × 10 5 atoms that were preliminarily cooled in a magneto-optical trap to the sub-Doppler temperature of 80 μK. As many as 4 × 10 4 atoms were trapped in the magnetic trap at the temperature of 40 μK. By the character of trap population decay the lifetime of atoms was determined (0.5 s) and an upper estimate was obtained for the rate constant of inelastic binary collisions for spin-polarised thulium atoms in the ground state (g in < 10 -11 cm 3 s -1 ).
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
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.
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.