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Bulletin of the American Physical Society

Laser trapping of radioactive atoms

S. J. Freedman

Published Apr 1, 1995• 0 citations
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Abstract

The capability of manipulating neutral atoms with the force of resonant scattered laser light is being exploited in several different areas of research. The author discusses applications in particle and nuclear physics by expediting some measurements of the subtle effects of the fundamental weak interaction in atoms and nuclei. It was shown in two recent experiments that it is possible to efficiently cool accelerator produced short-lived isotopes and load them into magneto-optic traps. These demonstrations open up new possibilities for obtaining the required precision in experiments involving rare radioactive isotopes.

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AIP conference proceedings•Jan 1, 1999•10 citations
The capability of manipulating neutral atoms with the force of resonant scattered laser light is being exploited in several different areas of research. The author discusses applications in particle and nuclear physics by expediting some measurements of the subtle effects of the fundamental weak interaction in atoms and nuclei. It was shown in two recent experiments that it is possible to efficiently cool accelerator produced short-lived isotopes and load them into magneto-optic traps. These demonstrations open up new possibilities for obtaining the required precision in experiments involving rare radioactive isotopes.
Laser cooling and trapping techniques made possible during the last two decades important achievements in the atomic physics and quantum mechanics fields. These same techniques can be usefully applied to radioactive atoms by opening new fields of investigations. Nuclear processes can be studied with the atomic physics tools. We focused our attention on Francium radioactive atoms. A magneto-optical trap has been set up at the INFN Legnaro laboratories. Preliminary tests with other stable alkali atoms aimed at an improvement of the MOT collection efficiency are reported. Fast and efficient trap loading of rubidium has been obtained through the light-induced atomic desorption from an organic coating. A larger number of sodium atoms, as compared to monochromatic trapping laser, has been trapped by using a broad-band laser.
We are attempting to produce an atomic vapor that is so cold that the de Broglie wavelength is larger than the interparticle spacing. This is the condition needed to obtain Bose-Einstein condensation of a noninteracting gas. Our approach is to optically trap and cool atomic cesium and then load it into a purely magnetic trap for further cooling. In the course of this work we have investigated a number of magnetic traps and very low temperature collisions that are relevant to the success of this approach. In other work we are developing optical trapping techniques for the efficient collection of radioactive alkali isotopes. This work is aimed at measuring parity violation in these isotopes and thereby stringently testing the standard model of elementary particle physics. We have studied how to optimize the capture efficiency of atoms in an atomic vapor. We are currently developing cells that will allow the atoms to bounce off the walls until they are captured in the optical trap. The efficiency of this capture scheme will be discussed.
We describe an experiment which demonstrates the feasibility of trapping significant quantities of short-lived radioactive atoms with laser light. A thermal beam of 22.5 sec half-life 21Na^{21}\mathrm{Na}21Na atoms was produced on-line at the LBL 88'' Cyclotron. After decelerating the beam using a Zeeman-tuned slowing technique we stored about 4\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}103{10}^{3}103 21Na^{21}\mathrm{Na}21Na atoms in a magneto-optical trap. The number of trapped atoms is large enough to be used in experimental studies of the beta decay of 21Na^{21}\mathrm{Na}21Na. The basic method can be adapted for other rare isotopes.
The forces felt by atoms when illuminated with resonant radiation can reduce their velocity dispersion and confine them in a region of space for further probing and experimentation. The forces can be dissipative or conservative and allow manipulations of the external degrees of freedom of atoms and small neutral particles. Laser cooling and trapping is now an important tool for many spectroscopic studies. It enhances the density of atoms in phase space by many orders of magnitude reducing the need of large samples. These lecture notes review the fundamental principles of the field and show some of the applications to the study of the spectroscopy of radioactive atoms. 1