Physical Review A
Laser cooling of Y173b for isotope separation and precision hyperfine spectroscopy
Dipankar Das, Vasant Natarajan A
Abstract
The hyperfine transitions in the 399 nm ${^{1}S}_{0}\ensuremath{\leftrightarrow}{^{1}P}_{1}$ line in $^{173}\text{Y}\text{b}$ overlap with the transition in $^{172}\text{Y}\text{b}$. We use transverse laser cooling on this line to selectively deflect $^{173}\text{Y}\text{b}$ atoms from a thermal beam containing both isotopes. We then use an acousto-optic modulator to span the frequency difference between the hyperfine transitions, and hence measure hyperfine structure in the ${^{1}P}_{1}$ state. Our precise values for the hyperfine constants, ${A}_{173}=57.693\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.006\text{ }\text{MHz}$ and ${B}_{173}=609.028\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.056\text{ }\text{MHz}$, improve previous values significantly.