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Magnetic trap of metastable europium atoms

Hiroki Matsui, Yuki Miyazawa, Ryotaro Inoue, Mikio Kozuma

Published Apr 28, 2021• 0 citations
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Abstract

We report the measurement of one-body loss rates for magnetically trapped metastable europium atoms and the study of their loss mechanism. The loss of atoms observed in a magneto-optical trap is not fully understood because of the indivisibility of the loss regarding optical pumpings due to the presence of cooling laser beams. We magnetically trap the atoms by directly loading from the magneto-optical trap and observe almost identical one-body loss rates of approximately $2.6\,\mathrm{s^{-1}}$ for two isotopes: $\mathrm{{}^{151}Eu}$ and $\mathrm{{}^{153}Eu}$. Our rate-equation-based model, combined with loss rate measurements carried out with repumpers, shows that blackbody radiation at room temperature drives E1 transitions and induces the observed losses.

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We report the measurement of one-body loss rates for magnetically trapped metastable europium atoms and the study of their loss mechanism. The loss of atoms observed in a magneto-optical trap is not fully understood because of the indivisibility of the loss regarding optical pumpings due to the presence of cooling laser beams. We magnetically trap the atoms by directly loading from the magneto-optical trap and observe almost identical one-body loss rates of approximately 2.6 s−12.6\,\mathrm{s^{-1}}2.6s−1 for two isotopes: 151Eu\mathrm{{}^{151}Eu}151Eu and 153Eu\mathrm{{}^{153}Eu}153Eu. Our rate-equation-based model, combined with loss rate measurements carried out with repumpers, shows that blackbody radiation at room temperature drives E1 transitions and induces the observed losses.
We demonstrate laser cooling and magneto-optical trapping of europium. The atoms are optically pumped to a metastable state and then loaded from an atomic-beam source via conventional Zeeman slowing and magneto-optical trapping techniques using a $J=13/2\ensuremath{\leftrightarrow}J=15/2$ quasicyclic transition. The trapped populations contained up to $1\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{7}$ atoms, and a two-body loss rate is estimated as $1\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{\ensuremath{-}10}\phantom{\rule{0.28em}{0ex}}{\mathrm{cm}}^{3}/\mathrm{s}$ from the nonexponential loss of atoms at high densities. We also observed leakage out of the quasicyclic transition to the two metastable states with J=9/2J=9/2J=9/2 and 11/211/211/2, which is adequate to pump the laser-cooled atoms back to the J=7/2J=7/2J=7/2 ground state.
We report on a novel mechanism that allows for strong laser cooling of atoms that do not have a closed cycling transition. This mechanism is observed in a magneto-optical trap (MOT) for erbium, an atom with a very complex energy level structure with multiple pathways for optical-pumping losses. We observe surprisingly high trap populations of over 10(6) atoms and densities of over 10(11) atoms cm(-3), despite the many potential loss channels. A model based on recycling of metastable and ground state atoms held in the quadrupole magnetic field of the trap explains the high trap population, and agrees well with time-dependent measurements of MOT fluorescence. The demonstration of trapping of a rare-earth atom such as erbium opens a wide range of new possibilities for practical applications and fundamental studies with cold atoms.
We report on the realization of a magneto-optical trap (MOT) for europium atoms using a narrow-line cooling transition with a natural linewidth of 97 kHz. Europium is a strongly dipolar species with interesting properties, such as the presence of hyperfine structure and the absence of electronic orbital angular momentum. Our starting point of the MOT is continuous capturing and cooling of optically pumped metastable europium atoms. We have employed simultaneous MOT for the metastable and ground-state atoms. The trapped metastable atoms are successively pumped back to the ground state and then continuously loaded to the narrow-line MOT, where up to $4.7\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{7}$ atoms are captured. A spin-polarized sample at a temperature of $6\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}\ensuremath{\mu}\mathrm{K}$ and with a peak number density of $2.2\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{11}\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}{\mathrm{cm}}^{\ensuremath{-}3}$ is obtained through the compression process, resulting in a phase space density of $3\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{\ensuremath{-}5}$.
We realize a magneto-optical trap (MOT) of titanium (Ti) atoms, performing laser cooling on the 498 nm transition between the long-lived 3 d 3 ( F 4 ) 4 s a 5 F 5 metastable state and the 3 d 3 ( F 4 ) 4 p y 5 G 6 o excited state. Without the addition of any repumping light, we observe MOTs of the three stable, I = 0 bosonic isotopes, Ti 46 , Ti 48 , and Ti 50 . Up to 8.30 ( 26 ) × 10 5 Ti 48 atoms are trapped at a maximum density of 1.3 ( 4 ) × 10 11 cm − 3 and at a temperature of 90 ( 15 ) µ K . By measuring the decay of the MOT, we constrain the leakage branching ratio of the cooling transition ( ≤ 2.5 × 10 − 6 ) and the two-body loss coefficient ( ≤ 2 × 10 − 10 cm 3 s − 1 ). Our approach to laser cooling Ti can be applied to other transition metals, enabling a significant expansion of the elements that can be laser cooled.
Abstract We report simultaneous cooling and trapping of metastable 84 Kr ( 84 Kr*) and metastable 86 Kr ( 86 Kr*) atoms by overlapping the cooling laser beams for these different isotopes in the same region of a magneto-optical trap (MOT). Approximately 2 × 10 5 atoms of each isotope were trapped in this two isotope-MOT (TIMOT). We have investigated the heteronuclear collision trap loss rates for each isotope due to the presence of cold atoms of other isotope using the TIMOT loading curves. The two body heteronuclear loss rate coefficient (i.e. for the loss of 84 Kr* due to presence of 86 Kr*) and the reciprocal loss rate coefficient (i.e. for the loss of 86 Kr* due to presence of 84 Kr*) are measured to be (8.7 ± 0.8) × 10 −10 cm 3 s −1 and (8.8 ± 0.8) × 10 −10 cm 3 s −1 respectively for laser beam intensity values of 21 mW cm −2 (for cooling of 84 Kr*) and 64 mW cm −2 (for cooling of 86 Kr*). The dependence of heteronuclear cold collision loss rate on cooling laser beams intensity has also been studied and compared with homonuclear cold collision loss rate.
We have magneto-optically trapped the nine stable isotopes of xenon. Using the Zeeman slowing method to decelerate a beam of xenon atoms in the metastable 6s 3/2 [3/2]2{]}_{2}]2​ state (notation representing nl Jcore{\mathit{J}}_{\mathrm{core}}Jcore​ [K=Jcore{\mathit{J}}_{\mathrm{core}}Jcore​+l]J{]}_{\mathit{J}}]J​), we load our trap to a collisionally limited density of more than 1010{10}^{10}1010 atoms/cm3{\mathrm{cm}}^{3}cm3. The two odd isotopes are trapped without a repumping frequency, even though they have hyperfine structure. The sensitivity of the trapping process to the laser frequency is exploited to make accurate measurements of the isotope shifts for the 6s 3/2 [3/2]2{]}_{2}]2​\ensuremath{\rightarrow}6p 3/2 [5/2]3{]}_{3}]3​ laser-cooling transition and of the hyperfine constants for 131Xe^{131}\mathrm{Xe}131Xe.