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Vacuum and Surface Science

Generation of Slow Ytterbium Atom Vapor by a Laser-Dissociation of a Metal Oxide and Trapping by a Magneto-Optical Trap

Masami Yasuda

Published Oct 9, 2020• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We demonstrate the cold emission of ytterbium atomic vapors from ytterbium oxide irradiated with a simple ultraviolet diode laser. Slow atoms are trapped by a magneto-optical trap using a dipole-allowed strong transition at 399 nm. Accompanying phenomenon of the emission of white light from the irradiated ytterbium oxide sample is preliminary investigated. This method will open the way towards a compact and transportable optical lattice clock.

DOI
10.1380/vss.63.514

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We demonstrate the cold emission of ytterbium atomic vapors from ytterbium oxide irradiated with a simple ultraviolet diode laser. Slow atoms are trapped by a magneto-optical trap using a dipole-allowed strong transition at 399 nm. Accompanying phenomenon of the emission of white light from the irradiated ytterbium oxide sample is preliminary investigated. This method will open the way towards a compact and transportable optical lattice clock.
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We present an optical lattice clock based on ytterbium 171Yb atoms developed in the laboratories of INRIM. In the experiment, we cool and trap ytterbium atoms in a two stage magneto-optical trap (MOT) (at 399nm and 556nm for the first and second stage, respectively). Atoms are then transferred in a horizontal, one-dimensional optical lattice at the magic wavelength (759 nm). Here the clock transition at 578nm is probed by a laser stabilized on an ultra-stable cavity. We describe the generation of all the laser sources, the physic package and the operation of the clock. Lasers at 399 nm, 556nm and 578nm are obtained, with different techniques, using non-linear crystals starting from infrared sources. The clock laser is stabilized using a high finesse notched ULE cavity. The lattice is made with a titanium-sapphire laser. The aluminum vacuum chamber is designed for wide optical access and its temperature is measured by 8 thermistors for blackbody shift evaluation. Our system allows for fast loading of the lattice with 1 × 104atoms trapped in the lattice in 250 ms. We obtained preliminary spectroscopy results and we locked the clock laser to the atomic line. Future perspectives are discussed.