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arXiv:2505.08250 · Physical Review Research

Sub-recoil transverse momentum width in a cold ytterbium atomic beam

Toshiyuki Hosoya, Tomoya Sato, Ryotaro Inoue, Mikio Kozuma

Published Sep 22, 2025• 0 citations
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Abstract

We demonstrate the generation of a slow ytterbium atomic beam with a transverse momentum width of 0.44(6) times the photon recoil associated with Bragg diffraction, and a flux of 6.7 ( 9 ) × 10 6 atoms/s. This is achieved by applying momentum filtering through a long-lived metastable state to atoms prepared in a slow beam via two-dimensional transverse laser cooling. The resulting narrow momentum distribution enables efficient quasi-Bragg diffraction, which we exploit to realize a Bragg interferometer. These results mark a significant step toward continuous, high-precision, and magnetically insensitive angular rate measurements using cold alkaline-earth(-like) atomic beams.

DOI
10.1103/4rkj-z4qp

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We demonstrate the generation of a slow ytterbium atomic beam with a transverse momentum width of 0.44(6) times the photon recoil associated with Bragg diffraction, and a flux of 6.7 ( 9 ) × 10 6 atoms/s. This is achieved by applying momentum filtering through a long-lived metastable state to atoms prepared in a slow beam via two-dimensional transverse laser cooling. The resulting narrow momentum distribution enables efficient quasi-Bragg diffraction, which we exploit to realize a Bragg interferometer. These results mark a significant step toward continuous, high-precision, and magnetically insensitive angular rate measurements using cold alkaline-earth(-like) atomic beams.
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We report on an atom interferometer based on Bragg diffraction in a fountain of alkaline-earth-metal atoms, namely 88Sr^{88}\mathrm{Sr}88Sr. We demonstrate large momentum transfer to the atoms up to eight photon recoils and the use of the interferometer as a gravimeter with a sensitivity $\ensuremath{\delta}g/g=4\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{\ensuremath{-}8}$. Thanks to the special characteristics of strontium atoms for precision measurements, this result introduces alternate possibilities for experiments in fundamental and applied physics.
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Laser cooled atomic gases and atomic beams are widely studied samples in experimental research in atomic and optical physics. For the application of ultra cold gases as model systems for e.g. quantum many particle systems, the atomic species is not very important. Thus this field is dominated by alkaline, earthalkaline elements which are easily accessible with conventional laser sources and have convenient closed cooling transition. On the otherhand, laser cooled atoms may also be interesting for technological applications, for instance for the creation of novel materials by atomic nanofabrication (ANF). There it will be important to use technologically relevant materials. As an example, using group III atoms of the periodical table in ANF may open a route to generate fully 3D structured composite materials. The minimal requirement in such an ANF experiment is the collimation of an atomic beam which is accessible by one dimensional laser cooling. In this dissertation, I describe transverse laser cooling of an Indium atomic beam. For efficient laser cooling on a cycling transition, I have built a tunable, continuous-wave coherent ultraviolet source at 326 nm based on frequency tripling. For this purpose, two independent high power Yb-doped fiber amplifiers for the generation of the fundamental radiation at 977 nm have been constructed. I have observed sub-Doppler transverse laser cooling of an Indium atomic beam on a cycling transition of In by introducing a polarization gradient in the linear-perpendicular-linear configuration. The transverse velocity spread of a laser-cooled In atomic beam at full width at half maximum was achieved to be 13.5 ± 3.8 cm/s yielding a full divergence of only 0.48 ± 0.13 mrad. In addition, nonlinear spectroscopy of a 3-level, Lambda-type level system driven by a pump and a probe beam has been investigated in order to understand the absorption line shapes used as a frequency reference in a previous two-color spectroscopy experiment. For the analysis of this atomic system, I have applied a density matrix theory providing an excellent basis for understanding the observed line shapes.