Cooling and Trapping ^88Sr Atoms with 461 nm Laser

Charles S. Adams, Erling Riis

Shaokai Wang, Wang Qiang, Lin Yi-Ge +5 more

We report the experimental realization of a 88Sr magneto-optical trap (MOT) operating at the wavelength of 461 nm. The MOT is loaded via a 32 cm long spin-flip type Zeeman slower which enhances the MOT population by a factor of 22. The total laser power available in our experiment is about 300 mW. We have trapped 1.6 × 108 88Sr atoms with a 679nm and 707 nm repumping laser. The two repumping lasers enhance the trap population and trap lifetime by factors of 11 and 7, respectively. The 88Sr cloud has a temperature of about 2.3 mK, measured by recording the time evolution of the absorption signal.

Curtis C. Bradley, Randall G. Hulet

Takayuki Kurosu, Fujio Shimizu

Calcium and strontium atomic beams are cooled and trapped by using the 1S0-1P1 transition in the 400 nm region. The trapping of 8 isotopes, 40Ca, 42Ca, 43Ca, 44Ca, 84Sr, 86Sr, 87Sr and 88Sr, is observed. The decay rate of the trapped atom is found to be of the order of 10 ms and the average atomic velocity less than 1 m/s.

Matthew A. Norcia, James K. Thompson

We describe frequency stabilization of a laser at 707 nm wavelength using FM spectroscopy in a hollow cathode lamp. The laser is stabilized to the (88)Sr metastable (3)P2 to (3)S1 optical transition. The stabilized laser is utilized for laser-cooling and trapping of strontium atoms. We also briefly describe how the same hollow cathode lamp is used to simultaneously derive a polarization spectroscopy signal for stabilizing the blue-MOT laser at 461 nm.

Fujio Shimizu