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arXiv:2602.09403

Simple Magneto-Optical and Magnetic Traps for Dysprosium

Liam Domett-Potts, Lucile Sanchez, Charlotte Hayton, OSCAR STONE, Nuttida Kaewart, Piyawat Chatchaichompu, Narupon Chattrapiban, Nithiwadee Thaicharoen, Mikkel F. Andersen

Published Feb 10, 2026• 0 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Dysprosium (Dy) is the most magnetic element on the periodic table, making it excellent for studying dipolar atom-atom interactions. We report on a simple Dy MOT that captures atoms directly from the thermal beam using a single diode-laser system to generate the light. Additionally, the atoms are magnetically confined by the quadrupole magnetic field that also facilitates the MOT. The MOT loading time is $τ_\text{b} = 26~\text{ms}$. Atoms can decay to a dark state that is magnetically trapped. The time constant for loading into this magnetic trap is $τ_\text{d} = 410~\text{ms}$. The total magnetically trapped population is $1.14\times10^{5}$ atoms, with $85\%$ residing in the dark states. The magnetically trapped atoms have a temperature of $28~μ\text{K}$, significantly below the Doppler limit. This population fulfills the requirements for a range of future experiments.

DOI
10.48550/arxiv.2602.09403

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Frontiers in Optics•Jan 1, 2010•0 citations
Dysprosium (Dy) is the most magnetic element on the periodic table, making it excellent for studying dipolar atom-atom interactions. We report on a simple Dy MOT that captures atoms directly from the thermal beam using a single diode-laser system to generate the light. Additionally, the atoms are magnetically confined by the quadrupole magnetic field that also facilitates the MOT. The MOT loading time is τb=26 msτ_\text{b} = 26~\text{ms}τb​=26 ms. Atoms can decay to a dark state that is magnetically trapped. The time constant for loading into this magnetic trap is τd=410 msτ_\text{d} = 410~\text{ms}τd​=410 ms. The total magnetically trapped population is 1.14×1051.14\times10^{5}1.14×105 atoms, with 85%85\%85% residing in the dark states. The magnetically trapped atoms have a temperature of 28 μK28~μ\text{K}28 μK, significantly below the Doppler limit. This population fulfills the requirements for a range of future experiments.
Abstract Dysprosium (Dy) is the most magnetic element on the periodic table, making it excellent for studying dipolar atom-atom interactions. We report on a simple Dy magneto-optical trap (MOT) that captures atoms directly from the thermal beam using a single diode-laser system to generate the light. Additionally, the atoms are magnetically confined by the quadrupole magnetic field that also facilitates the MOT. The MOT loading time constant is τ b = 26 ms . Atoms can decay to a dark state that is magnetically trapped. The time constant for loading into this magnetic trap is τ d = 410 ms . The total magnetically trapped population is 1.14 × 10 5 atoms, with 85 % residing in the dark states. The magnetically trapped atoms have a temperature of 28 μ K , significantly below the Doppler limit. This population fulfills the requirements for a range of future experiments.
Dysprosium is the most magnetic element on the periodic table, which gives it the potential to display exotic physics. To study magnetic interacting atoms, we plan to capture single atoms of Dysprosium in optical tweezers, as done with Rubidium atoms in [1]. The first step is a 3D magneto-optical trap (MOT), which combines the optical molasses technique [2] and spatial-dependent Zeeman splitting [3] to trap a cloud of Dysprosium atoms. The MOT is inside an ultra-high vacuum (UHV) chamber and an effusion cell produces a hot beam of Dysprosium atoms, from which it loads. An amplified external cavity diode laser, locked to an optical reference cavity, generates the 421 nm light that forms the optical molasses. Water-cooled coils in a quadrupole configuration generate the magnetic fields. Our experiment is the first to load the MOT directly in the hot beam, prioritising simplicity over a large MOT population by going without a 2D MOT or Zeeman slower, used in [4] and [5]. This thesis presents our design and implementation of the simple Dysprosium MOT, shown in Fig. 1. We also show the characteristics of the MOT and atomic source. The simplification of the Dysprosium MOT is twofold: it does not require frequency doubling setups to generate the laser light [5,6] and the aforementioned pre-cooling stages [5,7]. Simplifying this process allows more laboratories worldwide to implement Dysprosium trapping and further our understanding of its exotic physics.
Ultracold dysprosium gases, with a magnetic moment 10 times that of alkali atoms and equal only to terbium as the most magnetic atom, are expected to exhibit a multitude of fascinating collisional dynamics and quantum dipolar phases, including quantum liquid crystal physics. We report the first laser cooling and trapping of half a billion Dy atoms using a repumper-free magneto-optical trap (MOT) and continuously loaded magnetic confinement, and we characterize the trap recycling dynamics for bosonic and fermionic isotopes. The first inelastic collision measurements in the few partial wave, 100 microK-1 mK, regime are made in a system possessing a submerged open electronic f shell. In addition, we observe unusual stripes of intra-MOT <10 microK sub-Doppler cooled atoms.
Magneto-optical traps (MOTs) of highly magnetic lanthanides open the door to explorations of novel phases of strongly correlated matter such as lattice supersolids and quantum liquid crystals. We recently reported the first MOTs of the five high-abundance isotopes of the most magnetic atom, dysprosium. Described here are details of the experimental technique employed for repumper-free Dy MOTs containing up to half a billion atoms. Extensive characterization of the MOTs' properties---population, temperature, loading, metastable decay dynamics, and trap dynamics---is provided.
Laser cooling and trapping of the most magnetic fermionic atom, dysprosium (Dy), may provide a framework to explore quantum liquid crystal (QLC) theory (Chapter 1). This thesis presents details of the Dy laser cooling and trapping apparatus including the laser systems at 421, 741, and 1064 nm, the ultra-high vacuum (UHV) chamber, and the computer control that has produced a magneto-optically (MOT) and magneto-statically (MT) trapped Dy gas (Chapters 3, 4, 5). Despite the fact that Dy has a complex energy level structure with nearly 140 metastable states (Chapter 2), Dy MOT at 421-nm transition with 32-MHz linewidth was realized without any rempumper, exploiting its large magnetic moment, which brought a strong magnetic confinement of metastable states of Dy. This unique MOT/MT dynamics is discussed and its quantitative measurements are shown in Chapter 6. When the Dy atoms dropped from the MOT were adsorptively imaged, it was observed that Dy MOT had a bimodal temperature distribution in contrast to the usual MOT described by a single temperature (Chapter 7). Such novel anisotropic sub-Doppler laser cooling of Dy, which breaks the symmetry in cooling, is due to Dy's large magnetic spin aligned along a strong axis of the quadrupole field of the MOT, and we further support this plausible conjecture with the velocity selective resonance (VSR) theory. The MOT at ~ 1 mK was cooled to ~ 10 uK by narrow-line cooling at 741 nm with a linewidth of 2 kHz, and we were able to load the optical dipole trap (ODT) at 1064 nm. By loading two isotopes of 164Dy and 163Dy in sequence to the MOT and narrow-line cooling them simultaneously, ultracold Bose-Fermi mixtures of Dy in the ODT were realized (Chapter 8). This thesis is concluded with a discussion of prospect on the Bose-Fermi mixtures of Dy.