Laser cooling and magneto-optical trapping of holmium atoms

We demonstrate sub-Doppler laser cooling and magneto-optical trapping of the rare earth element Holmium. Atoms are loaded from an atomic beam source and captured in six-beam $σ_+ - σ_-$ molasses using a strong $J=15/2 \leftrightarrow J=17/2$ cycling transition at $λ=410.5 \rm nm$ . Due to the small difference in hyperfine splittings and Landé $g$ -factors in the lower and upper levels of the cooling transition the MOT is self-repumped without additional repump light, and deep sub-Doppler cooling is achieved with the magnetic trap turned on. We measure the leakage out of the cycling transition to metastable states and find a branching ratio $\sim 10^{-5}$ which is adequate for state resolved measurements on hyperfine encoded qubits.We demonstrate sub-Doppler laser cooling and magneto-optical trapping of the rare earth element Holmium. Atoms are loaded from an atomic beam source and captured in six-beam $σ_+ - σ_-$ molasses using a strong $J=15/2 \leftrightarrow J=17/2$ cycling transition at $λ=410.5 \rm nm$. Due to the small difference in hyperfine splittings and Landé $g$-factors in the lower and upper levels of the cooling transition the MOT is self-repumped without additional repump light, and deep sub-Doppler cooling is achieved with the magnetic trap turned on. We measure the leakage out of the cycling transition to metastable states and find a branching ratio $\sim 10^{-5}$ which is adequate for state resolved measurements on hyperfine encoded qubits.

arXiv:1401.4156Physical Review AApr 3, 201487 citations

Laser Cooling and Magnetic Trapping of Neutral Atoms

Sung-Leung Ivan So

Jan 1, 19860 citations

Laser Cooling and Magnetic Trapping of Neutral Atoms

Harold J. Metcalf

Springer eBooksJan 1, 19869 citations

We demonstrate sub-Doppler laser cooling and magneto-optical trapping of the rare earth element Holmium. Atoms are loaded from an atomic beam source and captured in six-beam

σ_+ - σ_-

molasses using a strong

J=15/2 \leftrightarrow J=17/2

cycling transition at

λ=410.5 \rm nm

. Due to the small difference in hyperfine splittings and Landé

g

-factors in the lower and upper levels of the cooling transition the MOT is self-repumped without additional repump light, and deep sub-Doppler cooling is achieved with the magnetic trap turned on. We measure the leakage out of the cycling transition to metastable states and find a branching ratio

\sim 10^{-5}

which is adequate for state resolved measurements on hyperfine encoded qubits.