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Efficient sub-Doppler laser cooling of an Indium atomic beam

Jae-Ihn Kim, D. Haubrich, Dieter Meschede

Published Nov 6, 2009• 15 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We have realized efficient transverse cooling of an Indium atomic beam by combining optical pumping with a closed cycle UV laser cooling transition at 325.6 nm. The transverse velocity of the atomic beam is reduced to 13.5+/-3.8 cm/s, well below the Doppler cooling limit. The fraction of laser-cooled In atoms is enhanced to 12+/-3 % by optical pumping in the present experiment. It can be scaled up to approach 100% efficiency in cooling, providing high brightness atomic beams for further applications. Our results establish In on the map of elements suitable for applications involving laser cooling.

DOI
10.1364/oe.17.021216

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We have realized efficient transverse cooling of an Indium atomic beam by combining optical pumping with a closed cycle UV laser cooling transition at 325.6 nm. The transverse velocity of the atomic beam is reduced to 13.5+/-3.8 cm/s, well below the Doppler cooling limit. The fraction of laser-cooled In atoms is enhanced to 12+/-3 % by optical pumping in the present experiment. It can be scaled up to approach 100% efficiency in cooling, providing high brightness atomic beams for further applications. Our results establish In on the map of elements suitable for applications involving laser cooling.
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.
We demonstrate magnetic field enabled optical forces on a neutral indium atomic beam in a light field consisting of five frequencies. The role of dark magnetic ground state sublevels is studied and enables us to cool the atomic beam transversely to near the Doppler limit with laser frequencies tuned above the atomic resonance. The effect of laser cooling can be explained with transient effects in the light potential created by the standing wave light field where the atoms are optically pumped into the dark states and recycled by Larmor precession.
The linear-perpendicular-linear polarization gradient technique was used for investigating laser collimation of a gallium atomic beam in one dimension. The full angular divergence of the atomic beam was reduced to 0.3 mrad by operating on a particular electron transition at 294.45 nm. The transverse velocity of the atoms was reduced to 11 cm/s, which was about half of the Doppler cooling limit. The one-dimensional kinetic energy of atoms was reduced to 6 neV. The transition state exhibited optical pumping of the atoms by the cooling laser.
We have laser collimated a gallium atomic beam in one dimension using the linear-perpendicular-linear polarization gradient technique. Operating on the cycling $4{p}^{\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}2}{P}_{3∕2}(F=3)\ensuremath{\rightarrow}4{d}^{\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}2}{D}_{5∕2}(F=4)$ transition at 294.45nm294.45\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}\text{nm}294.45nm, the full angular divergence of the atomic beam was reduced to 0.3mrad0.3\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}\text{mrad}0.3mrad, corresponding to a transverse velocity of $\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}11\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}\text{cm}∕\mathrm{s}$, about one-half the Doppler cooling limit. The dependence of the cooling efficiency on the laser detuning and power was investigated. Optical pumping of the atoms out of the 4p2P3∕2(F=3)4{p}^{\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}2}{P}_{3∕2}(F=3)4p2P3∕2​(F=3) state by the cooling laser was observed. Repumping schemes were investigated and found to successfully repopulate the cooled F=3F=3F=3 hyperfine state.
A thermal atomic beam of dysprosium atoms is cooled using the $4{f}^{10}6{s}^{2}(J=8)\ensuremath{\rightarrow}4{f}^{10}6s6p(J=9)$ transition at 421421421 nm. The cooling is done via a standing light wave orthogonal to the atomic beam. Efficient transverse cooling to the Doppler limit is demonstrated for all observable isotopes of dysprosium. Branching ratios to metastable states are demonstrated to be <<<$5\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{\ensuremath{-}4}$. A scheme for enhancement of the nonzero-nuclear-spin-isotope cooling and a method for direct identification of possible trap states are proposed.