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arXiv:2404.10480 · Physical Review A

Anisotropic polarizability of Dy at 532 nm on the intercombination transition

Damien Bloch, Britton Hofer, Sam R. Cohen, Maxence Lepers, Antoine Browaeys, Igor Ferrier-Barbut

Published Sep 5, 2024• 7 citations
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Abstract

We report experimental measurements of the dynamical polarizability of dysprosium, at a wavelength of 532 nm. We measure all three components (scalar, vector, and tensor) of the anisotropic polarizability for the ground and the excited manifolds of the intercombination transition of Dy at 626 nm. The apparatus on which the measurements are performed is presented. We obtain with this setup imaging of single Dy atoms with fidelity above 99% and losses below 2.5% induced by imaging. We then describe the methods used to extract the polarizability. In particular, we combine a measurement of trap frequency and trap depth on single atoms in optical tweezers, allowing us to obtain a measurement of the ground-state polarizability free of errors in trap waist calibration. The obtained values give a magic condition between two Zeeman states in the ground and excited manifolds, which is used to image single atoms in optical tweezer arrays. The scalar polarizability of the ground state is in disagreement with theoretical expectations, calling for future investigations to resolve the discrepancy.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.110.033103

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Optics Express•Dec 10, 2025•1 citation
We report experimental measurements of the dynamical polarizability of dysprosium, at a wavelength of 532 nm. We measure all three components (scalar, vector, and tensor) of the anisotropic polarizability for the ground and the excited manifolds of the intercombination transition of Dy at 626 nm. The apparatus on which the measurements are performed is presented. We obtain with this setup imaging of single Dy atoms with fidelity above 99% and losses below 2.5% induced by imaging. We then describe the methods used to extract the polarizability. In particular, we combine a measurement of trap frequency and trap depth on single atoms in optical tweezers, allowing us to obtain a measurement of the ground-state polarizability free of errors in trap waist calibration. The obtained values give a magic condition between two Zeeman states in the ground and excited manifolds, which is used to image single atoms in optical tweezer arrays. The scalar polarizability of the ground state is in disagreement with theoretical expectations, calling for future investigations to resolve the discrepancy.
Open-shell lanthanide atoms, and dysprosium in particular, combine a large ground-state angular momentum with dense electronic spectra, making their dynamical polarizability strongly dependent on wavelength and internal state, and therefore challenging to calculate and characterize experimentally. This issue has become especially relevant with the recent development of single-atom trapping of dysprosium in optical-tweezer arrays, where precise knowledge of the polarizability is needed to design optimized trapping architectures. Here, we exploit the strong spin-dependent light shift near the J′=J−1J'=J-1J′=J−1 intercombination line at 530.306 nm to determine the background scalar and vector polarizabilities of 162^{162}162Dy in its ground state near this wavelength. Our measurements quantitatively agree with atomic-structure calculations and provide new insight into the contributions of nearby transitions in a spectral region relevant to emerging dysprosium tweezer platforms.
We report the preparation and observation of single atoms of dysprosium in arrays of optical tweezers with a wavelength of 532 nm, imaged on the intercombination line at 626 nm. We use the anisotropic light shift specific to lanthanides and in particular a large difference in tensor and vector polarizabilities between the ground and excited states to tune the differential light shift and produce tweezers in near-magic or magic polarization. This allows us to find a regime where single atoms can be trapped and imaged. Using the tweezer array toolbox to manipulate lanthanides will open new research directions for quantum physics studies by taking advantage of their rich spectrum, large spin, and magnetic dipole moment.
We characterize the anisotropic differential ac-Stark shift for the Dy 626nm626\phantom{\rule{3.33333pt}{0ex}}\mathrm{nm}626nm intercombination transition, induced in a far-detuned 1070nm1070\phantom{\rule{3.33333pt}{0ex}}\mathrm{nm}1070nm optical dipole trap, and observe the existence of a ``magic polarization'' for which the polarizabilities of the ground and excited states are equal. From our measurements we extract both the scalar and tensorial components of the dynamic dipole polarizability for the excited state, ${\ensuremath{\alpha}}_{E}^{\text{s}}=188(12){\ensuremath{\alpha}}_{\text{0}}$ and ${\ensuremath{\alpha}}_{E}^{\text{t}}=34(12){\ensuremath{\alpha}}_{\text{0}}$, respectively, where ${\ensuremath{\alpha}}_{\text{0}}$ is the atomic unit for the electric polarizability. We also provide a theoretical model allowing us to predict the excited state polarizability and find qualitative agreement with our observations. Furthermore, we utilize our findings to optimize the efficiency of Doppler cooling of a trapped gas, by controlling the sign and magnitude of the inhomogeneous broadening of the optical transition. The resulting initial gain of the collisional rate allows us, after forced evaporation cooling, to produce a quasipure Bose-Einstein condensate of 162Dy^{162}\mathrm{Dy}162Dy with $3\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{4}$ atoms.
We report a measurement of the dynamical polarizability of dysprosium atoms in their electronic ground state at the optical wavelength of 1064 nm, which is of particular interest for laser trapping experiments. Our method is based on collective oscillations in an optical dipole trap, and reaches unprecedented accuracy and precision by comparison with an alkali atom (potassium) as a reference species. We obtain values of 184.4(2.4) and 1.7(6) a.u. for the scalar and tensor polarizability, respectively. Our experiments have reached a level that permits meaningful tests of current theoretical descriptions and provides valuable information for future experiments utilizing the intriguing properties of heavy lanthanide atoms.
Characterizing the trap-light-induced frequency shifts of optical Zeeman transitions is essential for the precise control of the interacting dynamics between optically trapped single atoms and external light fields. The closed hyperfine transition, for example, 6 S 1/2 | F = 4〉 → 6 P 3/2 | F ′ = 5〉 of the cesium (Cs) atom, is commonly used because of its high transition strength. However, within this hyperfine transition line, different Zeeman transitions experience distinct light shifts due to diverse susceptibilities to the light field, which are usually sorted as dynamic scalar, vector, and tensor polarizabilities. Here, we report an efficient method for measuring the light shifts of optical Zeeman transitions using single neutral atoms confined in an optical tweezer (OT). The method employs a weak probe beam together with an auxiliary optical pumping beam to manipulate the atomic population in ground states. In this way, population changes in a specific Zeeman state are mapped onto a different ground-state hyperfine manifold, allowing the optical spectrum of the Zeeman transition to be reconstructed through standard state-detection techniques. By using the method, we demonstrate the spectrum measurement of the open Zeeman transition 6 S 1/2 | F = 4, m F = 4〉 → 6 P 3/2 | F ′ = 5, m F ′ = 3〉 for a single Cs atom trapped in a π polarized OT. We further perform a systematic characterization of the tweezer-induced light shifts for both this open transition and the closed Zeeman transition 6 S 1/2 | F = 4, m F = 4〉 → 6 P 3/2 | F ′ = 5, m F ′ = 5〉 over a wide range of trap depths. The influence of the tensor polarizability in deep trap depths is experimentally observed.