Joint Conference of the European Frequency and Time Forum and IEEE International Frequency Control Symposium (EFTF/IFCS)
Sub-Doppler cooling with the 1S0-1P1 line in ytterbium
Nikita Kostylev, Eugene N. Ivanov, Michael Edmund Tobar, John J. McFerran
Abstract
We have studied the temperatures of several neutral Yb isotopes in a magneto-optical trap (MOT) using the1S0-1P1transition at 398.9 nm. We use a compact MOT with a titanium vacuum chamber and a high degree of othogonality between the beams. Minimum temperatures of 170 μK and 80 μK are recorded for171Yb, and173Yb, respectively, while 0.95 mK is measured for172Yb. By comparison the 1D Doppler cooling temperature limit is 694 μK. The results augur well for future lattice clocks that use Yb. We comment on the significance of sub-Doppler cooling of atoms with ground-state total angular momentum F =1/2, as is the case for171Yb.