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Towards trapping of hydrogen atoms for computable optical clock applications

Amit, Omer, Taray, Derya, Wirthl, Vitaly, Weis, Vincent, Syed, Mustafa Waqar, Akira Ozawa, Weitenberg, Johannes, Karshenboim, Savely G., Jook T. M. Walraven, Maisenbacher, Lothar, Randolf Pohl, Z. Burkley, Fabian Schmid, Theodor W. Hänsch, Yost, Dylan C., Udem, Thomas

Published Sep 1, 2025• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Because of its simple structure, the hydrogen atom is often used as a testbed for quantum electrodynamics. Spectroscopy of trapped atomic samples can greatly improve the accuracy of these tests. Trapping atomic hydrogen in an optical dipole trap or an optical lattice has never been achieved. Only trapping in magnetic fields that lead to large Zeeman shifts has been demonstrated. Standard techniques of atomic physics are difficult to apply to atomic hydrogen. The small mass of the atom and the large photon energy of the 1S-2P cooling transition significantly complicate Doppler cooling. This proposal introduces a photon recoil-assisted loading scheme that uses these properties to our advantage to load atomic hydrogen into an optical dipole trap without laser cooling. The magic wavelength (515 nm) for the 1S-2S clock transition (1.3-Hz natural linewidth) is easily accessible with current laser technology. Since the 1S-2S clock transition can be driven Doppler free, we do not require a very low temperature. Besides improving spectroscopy for fundamental science, such a system can also be used as a “computable” atomic clock that may one day justify the redefinition of the SI second in terms of the Rydberg constant.

DOI
10.3929/ethz-c-000786969

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Because of its simple structure, the hydrogen atom is often used as a testbed for quantum electrodynamics. Spectroscopy of trapped atomic samples can greatly improve the accuracy of these tests. Trapping atomic hydrogen in an optical dipole trap or an optical lattice has never been achieved. Only trapping in magnetic fields that lead to large Zeeman shifts has been demonstrated. Standard techniques of atomic physics are difficult to apply to atomic hydrogen. The small mass of the atom and the large photon energy of the 1S-2P cooling transition significantly complicate Doppler cooling. This proposal introduces a photon recoil-assisted loading scheme that uses these properties to our advantage to load atomic hydrogen into an optical dipole trap without laser cooling. The magic wavelength (515 nm) for the 1S-2S clock transition (1.3-Hz natural linewidth) is easily accessible with current laser technology. Since the 1S-2S clock transition can be driven Doppler free, we do not require a very low temperature. Besides improving spectroscopy for fundamental science, such a system can also be used as a “computable” atomic clock that may one day justify the redefinition of the SI second in terms of the Rydberg constant.
Because of its simple structure, the hydrogen atom is often used as a testbed for quantum electrodynamics. Spectroscopy of trapped atomic samples can greatly improve the accuracy of these tests. Trapping atomic hydrogen in an optical dipole trap or an optical lattice has never been achieved. Only trapping in magnetic fields that lead to large Zeeman shifts has been demonstrated. Standard techniques of atomic physics are difficult to apply to atomic hydrogen. The small mass of the atom and the large photon energy of the 1-2 cooling transition significantly complicate Doppler cooling. This proposal introduces a photon recoil-assisted loading scheme that uses these properties to our advantage to load atomic hydrogen into an optical dipole trap without laser cooling. The magic wavelength (515 nm) for the 1-2 clock transition (1.3-Hz natural linewidth) is easily accessible with current laser technology. Since the 1-2 clock transition can be driven Doppler free, we do not require a very low temperature. Besides improving spectroscopy for fundamental science, such a system can also be used as a “computable” atomic clock that may one day justify the redefinition of the SI second in terms of the Rydberg constant.
Atomic hydrogen has been loaded into a 1-K deep magnetic trap through the use of a dilution refrigerator. Evaporative cooling has been used to cool the trapped hydrogen into the submillikelvin temperature regime. These techniques have produced a sample with density of 8 × 1013 cm-3 at a temperature of 100 μK. At this density a transition to a Bose-Einstein condensate is predicted to occur at a temperature of 30 μK. These results have been obtained with a magnetic trap that has been constructed to accommodate upcoming experiments based on laser spectroscopy of the 1S-2S two photon transition in the trapped hydrogen. A frequency doubled narrow linewidth cw dye laser system has been constructed to excite the 1S-2S transition. The excitation will be detected by the observation of electric field-induced Lyman-alpha fluorescence. The optical detection system should yield improved sample density and temperature diagnostic capabilities that will facilitate a closer approach to the quantum degenerate regime. Additionally the cold, confined hydrogen gas offers the possibility of improving the level of resolution of Doppler-free hydrogen 1S-2S laser spectroscopy by several orders of magnitude.
Abstract We consider the potential use of optical traps for precision measurements in atomic hydrogen (H). Using an implicit summation method, we calculate the atomic polarisability, the rates of elastic/inelastic scattering and the ionisation rate in the wavelength range (395–1000) nm. We extend previous work to predict three new magic wavelengths for the 1S–2S transition. At the magic wavelengths, the 1S–2S transition is unavoidably and significantly broadened due to trap-induced ionisation associated with the high intensity required to trap the 1S state. However, we also find that this effect is partially mitigated by the low mass of H, which increases the trap frequency, enabling Lamb–Dicke confinement in shallow lattices. We find that a H optical lattice clock, free from the motional systematics which dominate in beam experiments, could operate with an intrinsic linewidth of the order of 1 kHz. Trap-induced losses are shown not to limit measurements of other transitions.
The magic wavelength for an optical lattice for hydrogen atoms that cancels the lowest order ac Stark shift of the $1S\text{\ensuremath{-}}2S$ transition is calculated to be 513 nm. The magnitudes of the ac Stark shift $\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Delta}}E=\ensuremath{-}119$ Hz/(kW/cm2)\text{Hz}/(\text{kW}/{\mathrm{cm}}^{2})Hz/(kW/cm2) and the slope $d\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Delta}}E/d\ensuremath{\nu}=\ensuremath{-}2.77$ Hz/(GHzkW/cm2)\text{Hz}/(\text{GHz} \text{kW}/{\mathrm{cm}}^{2})Hz/(GHzkW/cm2) at the magic wavelength suggest that a stable and narrow-line-width trapping laser is necessary to achieve a deep enough optical lattice to confine hydrogen atoms in a way that gives a small enough light shift for the precision spectroscopy of the $1S\text{\ensuremath{-}}2S$ transition.
The dynamic dipole polarizabilities for 1S, 2S and 3S states of the hydrogen atom are calculated using the finite B-spline basis set method, and the magic wavelengths for 1S—2S and 1S—3S transitions are identified. In comparison of the solutions from the Schrödinger and Dirac equations, the relativistic corrections on the magic wavelengths are of the order of 10 −2 nm. The laser intensities for a 300-E r -deep optical trap and the heating rates at 514 and 1371 nm are estimated. The reliable prediction of the magic wavelengths would be helpful for the experimental design on the optical trapping of the hydrogen atoms, and in turn, it would be helpful to improve the accuracy of the measurements of the hydrogen 1S—2S and 1S—3S transitions.
High-precision hydrogen spectroscopy is an active field which helps to determine the Rydberg constant and proton charge radius, tests bound-state QED, and can search for Beyond Standard Model (BSM) Physics. Additionally, with recent demonstrations of anti-hydrogen trapping and spectroscopy, a new line of investigation is possible whereby hydrogen can be compared to its antimatter counterpart. The next generation of precision hydrogen spectroscopy will likely require additional motional control of the atomic sample - similar to what is possible with heavier elements. Unfortunately, laser cooling - one of the cornerstones of modern precision atomic physics - is difficult in hydrogen due to the vacuum ultraviolet radiation required. Here, we sidestep the challenges inherent in laser cooling and demonstrate a technique whereby we load metastable atoms from a cryogenic beam into a moving optical lattice, decelerate the lattice, and observe a commensurate deceleration of the atoms. Since the optical lattice is governed by standard optoelectronics, this technique represents a robust platform for the motional control of hydrogen. Our technique could enable greater precision in hydrogen spectroscopy and be transferred to exotic simple atoms such as antihydrogen.