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Optics Express

Laser cooling transitions in atomic erbium

H Ban, Marcus Jacka, J. L. Hanssen, Joseph Reader, Jabez J. McClelland

Published Jan 1, 2005• 44 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We discuss laser cooling opportunities in atomic erbium, identifying five J ? J + 1 transitions from the 4f126s2 3H6 ground state that are accessible to common visible and near-infrared continuous-wave tunable lasers. We present lifetime measurements for the 4f11(4Io 15/2)5d5/26s2 (15/2, 5/2)7o state at 11888 cm-1 and the 4f11(4Io 13/2)5d3/26s2 (13/2, 5/2)7o state at 15847 cm-1, showing values of 20 +/- 4 micros and 5.6 +/- 1.4 micros, respectively. We also present a calculated value of 13 +/- 7 s-1 for the transition rate from the 4f11(4Io 15/2)5d3/26s2 (15/2, 3/2)7 o state at 7697 cm-1 to the ground state, based on scaled Hartree-Fock energy parameters. Laser cooling on these transitions in combination with a strong, fast (5.8 ns) laser cooling transition at 401 nm, suggest new opportunities for narrowband laser cooling of a large-magnetic moment atom, with possible applications in quantum information processing, high-precision atomic clocks, quantum degenerate gases, and deterministic single-atom doping of materials.

DOI
10.1364/opex.13.003185

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We report on a novel mechanism that allows for strong laser cooling of atoms that do not have a closed cycling transition. This mechanism is observed in a magneto-optical trap (MOT) for erbium, an atom with a very complex energy level structure with multiple pathways for optical-pumping losses. We observe surprisingly high trap populations of over 10(6) atoms and densities of over 10(11) atoms cm(-3), despite the many potential loss channels. A model based on recycling of metastable and ground state atoms held in the quadrupole magnetic field of the trap explains the high trap population, and agrees well with time-dependent measurements of MOT fluorescence. The demonstration of trapping of a rare-earth atom such as erbium opens a wide range of new possibilities for practical applications and fundamental studies with cold atoms.

Physical Review Letters•Apr 14, 2006•197 citations
We discuss laser cooling opportunities in atomic erbium, identifying five J ? J + 1 transitions from the 4f126s2 3H6 ground state that are accessible to common visible and near-infrared continuous-wave tunable lasers. We present lifetime measurements for the 4f11(4Io 15/2)5d5/26s2 (15/2, 5/2)7o state at 11888 cm-1 and the 4f11(4Io 13/2)5d3/26s2 (13/2, 5/2)7o state at 15847 cm-1, showing values of 20 +/- 4 micros and 5.6 +/- 1.4 micros, respectively. We also present a calculated value of 13 +/- 7 s-1 for the transition rate from the 4f11(4Io 15/2)5d3/26s2 (15/2, 3/2)7 o state at 7697 cm-1 to the ground state, based on scaled Hartree-Fock energy parameters. Laser cooling on these transitions in combination with a strong, fast (5.8 ns) laser cooling transition at 401 nm, suggest new opportunities for narrowband laser cooling of a large-magnetic moment atom, with possible applications in quantum information processing, high-precision atomic clocks, quantum degenerate gases, and deterministic single-atom doping of materials.
We have studied possible candidates for laser cooling transitions in 169 Tm in the spectral region 410 –420 nm. By means of saturation absorption spectroscopy we have measured the hyperfine structure and rates of two nearly closed cycling transitions from the ground state 4f 13 6s 2 ( 2 F0)(Jg = 7/2) to upper states 4f 12 ( 3 H5)5d3/26s 2 (Je = 9/2) at 410.6 nm and 4f 12 ( 3 F4)5d5/26s 2 (Je = 9/2) at 420.4 nm and evaluated the life times of the excited levels as 16.1(8) ns and 40(4) ns respectively. Decay rates from these levels to neighboring opposite-parity levels are evaluated by means of Hartree-Fock calculations. We conclude, that the strong transition at 410.6 nm has an optical leak rate of less then 2·10 −5 and can be used for efficient laser cooling of 169 Tm from a thermal atomic beam. In addition we give a calculated value of 7(2) s −1 for the rate of magnetic-dipole transition at 1.14 µm between the fine structure levels (Jg = 7/2) ↔ (J ′ g = 5/2) of the ground state. Due to efficient shielding by the closed 6s 2 shell, this transition is insensitive to collisions which makes it a promising candidate for applications in atomic clocks. PACS numbers: I.
Full text: It has been shown recently that Yb and Er atoms from the lanthanides group can be efficiently laser-cooled using strong transitions near 400 nm. Degenerate Fermi gases of ytterbium have been also recently demonstrated using laser-cooling based technic. Our goal was to investigate the possibility of laser cooling of Tm atom. Among other lanthanides, thulium possesses relatively simple level structure.Moreover, it has only one stable isotope {sup 169}Tm with a nuclear spin of I = 1/2 which makes possible to use schemes for sub-Doppler cooling. Laser-cooled thulium is a favorable candidate for optical clocks applications, since the forbidden transition between the fine structure sublevels (J{sub g} 5=2) - (J'{sub g} = 7/2) of the ground state 4f{sup 13}6s{sup 2} ({lambda} = 1.14 micron) has a spectral width of approximately 1 Hz. The collisional shift of such kind of transitions in lanthanides is suppressed because of the outer closed 6s{sup 2} shell, which allows for precision spectroscopy in a dense atomic cloud. We studied two candidates for cooling transitions from the ground state 4f{sup 13}6s{sup 2} (J{sub g} 7/2) to the states 4f{sup 12}({sup 3}H{sub 5})5d{sub 3/2}6s{sup 2} (J{sub e} = 9/2) at 410.6 nm and 4f{sup 12}({sup 3}F{sub 4})5d{sub 5/2}6s{sup 2} (J{sub e} = 9/2) at 420.4 nm. By means of saturation absorption spectroscopy, we measured the hyperfine structure and rates of these transitions. We evaluated the life times of appropriate excited levels as 15.9(8) ns and 48(6) ns, respectively. Decay rates from these levels to neighboring opposite-parity levels were evaluated by means of Hartree-Fock calculations. The fraction of atoms which do not return to the ground state is about 10{sup -5} and 5 {center_dot} 10{sup -4} for the 410.6 nm and 420.4 nm transitions respectively. We conclude that the strong transition at 410.6 nm with relative slow leakage rate can be used for the efficient cooling of Tm I. We also measured hyperfine structure of two nearby transitions from the ground state to the states 4f{sup 13}({sup 2}F{sub 7/2})6s6p({sup 1}P{sub 1}) (J{sub e} 5/2) at 409.4 nm and 4f{sup 12}({sup 3}F{sub 4})5d{sub 5/2}6s{sup 2} (J{sub e} = 7/2) at 418.9 nm, which can be used for {lambda}-type excitation of {lambda} = 1.14 {mu}m transition. (author)
We have studied possible candidates for laser cool- ing transitions in 169 Tm in the spectral region of 410-420 nm. By means of saturation absorption spectroscopy, we have meas- ured the hyperfine structure and rates of two nearly closed cy- cling transitions from the ground state 4 f 13 6s 2 ( 2 F0)(Jg = 7/2) to upper states 4 f 12 ( 3 H5)5d3/26s 2 (Je = 9/2) at 410. 6n m and 4 f 12 ( 3 F4)5d5/26s 2 (Je = 9/2) at 420.4 nm and evaluated the life times of the excited levels as 15.9(8) ns and 48 (6) ns, respectively. Decay rates from these levels to neighboring opposite-parity levels are evaluated by means of Hartree-Fock calculations. We conclude that the strong transition at 410. 6n m has an optical leak rate of less then 2 × 10 −5 and can be used for efficient laser cooling of 169 Tm from a thermal atomic beam. The hyperfine structure of two other even-parity levels, which can be excited from the ground state at 409. 5n m and 418.9 nm, is also measured by the same technique. In addition, we give a calculated value of 7(2) s −1 for the rate of magnetic- dipole transition at 1.14 µm between the fine structure levels (Jg = 7/2) ↔ (J � = 5/2) of the ground state which can be con- sidered as a candidate for applications in atomic clocks.
We have measured and analyzed the hyperfine structure of two lines, one at 583 nm and one at 401 nm, of the only stable fermionic isotope of atomic erbium as well as determined its isotope shift relative to the four most-abundant bosonic isotopes. Our work focuses on the $J\ensuremath{\rightarrow}J+1$ laser cooling transitions from the [Xe]4f126s2(3H6)[\text{Xe}]4{f}^{12}6{s}^{2}{(}^{3}{H}_{6})[Xe]4f126s2(3H6​) ground state to two levels of the excited [Xe]4f126s6p[\text{Xe}]4{f}^{12}6s6p[Xe]4f126s6p configuration, which are of major interest for experiments on quantum degenerate dipolar Fermi gases. From a fit to the observed spectra of the strong optical transition at 401 nm we find that the magnetic dipole and electric quadrupole hyperfine constants for the excited state are ${A}_{e}/h=\ensuremath{-}100.1(3)\phantom{\rule{0.28em}{0ex}}\mathrm{MHz}$ and ${B}_{e}/h=\ensuremath{-}3079(30)\phantom{\rule{0.28em}{0ex}}\mathrm{MHz}$, respectively. The hyperfine spectrum of the narrow transition at 583 nm, was previously observed and accurate Ae{A}_{e}Ae​ and Be{B}_{e}Be​ coefficients are available. A simulated spectrum based on these coefficients agrees well with our measurements. We have also determined the hyperfine constants using relativistic configuration-interaction ab initio calculations. The agreement between the ab initio and fitted data for the ground state is better than 0.1%, while for the two excited states the agreement is 1% and 11% for the Ae{A}_{e}Ae​ and Be{B}_{e}Be​ constants, respectively.
We report on the observation and coherent excitation of atoms on the narrow inner-shell orbital transition, connecting the erbium ground state [Xe]4f12(3H6)6s2 to the excited state [Xe]4f11((4I15/2)0)5d(5D3/2)6s2(15/2,3/2)70. This transition corresponds to a wavelength of 1299 nm and is optically closed. We perform high-resolution spectroscopy to extract the gJ factor of the 1299-nm state and to determine the frequency shift for four bosonic isotopes. We further demonstrate coherent control of the atomic state and extract a lifetime of 178(19) ms, which corresponds to a linewidth of 0.9(1) Hz. The experimental findings are in good agreement with our semi-empirical model. In addition, we present theoretical calculations of the atomic polarizability, revealing several different magic-wavelength conditions. Finally, we make use of the vectorial polarizability and confirm a possible magic wavelength at 532 nm.
We report on a novel mechanism that allows for strong laser cooling of atoms that do not have a closed cycling transition. This mechanism is observed in a magneto-optical trap (MOT) for erbium, an atom with a very complex energy level structure with multiple pathways for optical-pumping losses. We observe surprisingly high trap populations of over 10(6) atoms and densities of over 10(11) atoms cm(-3), despite the many potential loss channels. A model based on recycling of metastable and ground state atoms held in the quadrupole magnetic field of the trap explains the high trap population, and agrees well with time-dependent measurements of MOT fluorescence. The demonstration of trapping of a rare-earth atom such as erbium opens a wide range of new possibilities for practical applications and fundamental studies with cold atoms.