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Quantum Electronics

Detection of the clock transition in thulium atoms by using repump laser radiation

Dmitry O. Tregubov, Artem A. Golovizin, E.S. Fedorova, D. Mishin, Daniil I. Provorchenko, Ksenia Yu. Khabarova, В. Н. Сорокин, N. Kolachevsky

Published Jun 1, 2020• 6 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Abstract A population transfer from the upper level of the clock transition in thulium atoms to the ground level is demonstrated by using radiation with a wavelength of 402 nm. The method for detecting the clock transition excitation that is not affected by technical fluctuations of the number of atoms in an optical lattice is investigated. The hyperfine splitting of the |4f12(3F2)5d5/2 6s2; J = 7/2〉 level in the thulium atom is measured to be 1480(9) MHz. The suggested method for population transfer can be applied to both the hyperfine components of the clock transition intended for compensating Zeeman effect in a thulium optical clock.

DOI
10.1070/qel17352

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Quantum Electronics•Oct 31, 2008•4 citations
Abstract A population transfer from the upper level of the clock transition in thulium atoms to the ground level is demonstrated by using radiation with a wavelength of 402 nm. The method for detecting the clock transition excitation that is not affected by technical fluctuations of the number of atoms in an optical lattice is investigated. The hyperfine splitting of the |4f12(3F2)5d5/2 6s2; J = 7/2〉 level in the thulium atom is measured to be 1480(9) MHz. The suggested method for population transfer can be applied to both the hyperfine components of the clock transition intended for compensating Zeeman effect in a thulium optical clock.
Abstract The clock transition at a wavelength of 1.14 μm in thulium atoms in an optical lattice in the Lamb – Dick regime is studied. The capture of thulium atoms makes it possible to suppress completely both the transition broadening due to the first-order Doppler effect and the shift of the transition frequency caused by the recoil effect. The excitation spectra of sideband oscillation frequencies and Rabi oscillations of population between the clock transition levels upon resonance excitation are investigated.
Abstract This paper presents a detailed analysis of the effect of the optical lattice field on clock transition spectroscopy, as exemplified by thulium atoms. We consider the applicability of the sifting of atoms in an optical lattice by ramping down the power of the laser light that produces it. This method allows the number of filled vibrational sublevels to be reduced down to a single vibrational state, without changing the inner state of the atoms. The effectiveness of the method is illustrated by the example of the spectroscopy of a clock transition in thulium atoms in the resolved sideband regime.
Abstract We demonstrate a simple and efficient readout procedure of the 1.14^m clock transition excitation efficiency in neutral thulium atoms. Our method utilizes additional but short clock n-pulse to measure number of atoms excited by spectroscopic clock pulse, that allows to determine excitation probability insensitive to fluctuation of number of atoms in the trap. It is important that this method can be used for both hyperfine components of the clock transition and does not require any additional lasers in the setup.
Because of the low sensitivity of a thulium optical clock to black-body radiation and good accuracy and stability estimations, it is considered as a promising transportable optical clock. One of the leading systematic effects for Tm clock transition, i.e., the second-order Zeeman effect, can be canceled by probing two clock transitions between different hyperfine levels of ground and metastable states during clock operation. Herein, we demonstrate efficient optical pumping into the mF=0{m}_{F}=0mF​=0 state of both ground hyperfine levels using single-frequency radiation at 418.8 nm. We prepared the atoms in both target states simultaneously and excited two clock transitions alternately. The resulting population of mF=0{m}_{F}=0mF​=0 states of ground hyperfine levels was 36% and 3.8% of the initial number of atoms with less than 4% and 0.4% on nonzero magnetic sublevels, respectively. We performed numerical simulations of the optical pumping process, which is able to explain experimental results well.
Clock transition at 1.14μm1.14 \mu \mathrm{m}1.14μm in neutral thulium is a promising candidate for compact and robust transportable optical clock due to its extremely low sensitivity to external electric and magnetic fields. Cold Tm atoms are now used in optical lattice clocks, quantum simulators and for the study of Bose-Einstein condensation and cold collision physics. In this work, we discuss experimentally measured absolute frequencies of the two transitions at 410.6 nm and 530.7 nm, used for laser cooling of thulium atoms, transition at 418.8 nm used for optical pumping and clock transition at 1140 nm. Using accurate laser spectroscopy in an ensemble of cold thulium atoms, we measured frequencies of these transitions using an optical frequency comb, which was referenced to an active hydrogen maser. Transition frequencies were measured with an uncertainty at one tenth of their natural linewidth, which is sufficient for cooling and pumping of thulium atoms. The uncertainty of the clock transition frequency is 30 Hz, which was limited by the maser frequency calibration with GNSS. Our results can find application in existing experiments with cold thulium atoms and especially in new projects.
The possibility of laser cooling of thulium atoms is considered. The hyperfine structure of almost cyclic 4f 13 6s 2 ( J g = 7/2) ↔ 4f 12 5d 3/2 6s 2 ( J e = 9/2) and 4f 13 6s 2 ( J g = 7/2) ↔ 4f 12 5d 5/2 6s 2 ( J e = 9/2) transitions at 410.6 and 420.4 nm, respectively, is studied by the method of sub-Doppler saturation spectroscopy in counterpropagating laser beams. The hyperfine splitting of excited levels involved in these transitions is measured and the natural linewidths of these transitions are determined. The structure of the neighbouring 4f 13 6s6p ( J e = 5/2) and 4f 12 5d 5/2 6s 2 ( J e = 7/2) levels is studied for the first time by this method. The decay probabilities of the J e = 9/2 levels via channels removing atoms from the cooling cycle are calculated. It is found that the branching ratio for the strong transition at 410.6 nm ( A = 6 × 10 7 s -1 ) is smaller than 2 × 10 -5 , which makes this transition most promising for laser cooling. The laser cooling of atoms in a Zeeman cooler at this transition is simulated. The possibility of using a laser-cooled cloud of thulium atoms to study the metrological transition at 1.14 μm is discussed.