Sub-recoil transverse momentum width in a cold ytterbium atomic beam
Toshiyuki Hosoya, Tomoya Sato, Ryotaro Inoue +1 more
We demonstrate the generation of a slow ytterbium atomic beam with a transverse momentum width of 0.44(6) times the photon recoil associated with Bragg diffraction, and a flux of 6.7 ( 9 ) × 10 6 atoms/s. This is achieved by applying momentum filtering through a long-lived metastable state to atoms prepared in a slow beam via two-dimensional transverse laser cooling. The resulting narrow momentum distribution enables efficient quasi-Bragg diffraction, which we exploit to realize a Bragg interferometer. These results mark a significant step toward continuous, high-precision, and magnetically insensitive angular rate measurements using cold alkaline-earth(-like) atomic beams.
arXiv:2505.08250•Physical Review Research•Sep 22, 2025•0 citations