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Journal of Physics B Atomic Molecular and Optical Physics

Simple magneto-optical and magnetic traps for dysprosium

Liam Domett-Potts, Lucile Sanchez, Charlotte Hayton, OSCAR STONE, Nuttida Kaewart, Piyawat Chatchaichompu, Narupon Chattrapiban, Nithiwadee Thaicharoen, Mikkel F. Andersen

Published May 27, 2026• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Abstract Dysprosium (Dy) is the most magnetic element on the periodic table, making it excellent for studying dipolar atom-atom interactions. We report on a simple Dy magneto-optical trap (MOT) that captures atoms directly from the thermal beam using a single diode-laser system to generate the light. Additionally, the atoms are magnetically confined by the quadrupole magnetic field that also facilitates the MOT. The MOT loading time constant is τ b = 26 ms . Atoms can decay to a dark state that is magnetically trapped. The time constant for loading into this magnetic trap is τ d = 410 ms . The total magnetically trapped population is 1.14 × 10 5 atoms, with 85 % residing in the dark states. The magnetically trapped atoms have a temperature of 28 μ K , significantly below the Doppler limit. This population fulfills the requirements for a range of future experiments.

DOI
10.1088/1361-6455/ae73cd

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Dysprosium (Dy) is the most magnetic element on the periodic table, making it excellent for studying dipolar atom-atom interactions. We report on a simple Dy MOT that captures atoms directly from the thermal beam using a single diode-laser system to generate the light. Additionally, the atoms are magnetically confined by the quadrupole magnetic field that also facilitates the MOT. The MOT loading time is $τ_\text{b} = 26~\text{ms}$. Atoms can decay to a dark state that is magnetically trapped. The time constant for loading into this magnetic trap is $τ_\text{d} = 410~\text{ms}$. The total magnetically trapped population is $1.14\times10^{5}$ atoms, with $85\%$ residing in the dark states. The magnetically trapped atoms have a temperature of $28~μ\text{K}$, significantly below the Doppler limit. This population fulfills the requirements for a range of future experiments.

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Abstract Dysprosium (Dy) is the most magnetic element on the periodic table, making it excellent for studying dipolar atom-atom interactions. We report on a simple Dy magneto-optical trap (MOT) that captures atoms directly from the thermal beam using a single diode-laser system to generate the light. Additionally, the atoms are magnetically confined by the quadrupole magnetic field that also facilitates the MOT. The MOT loading time constant is τ b = 26 ms . Atoms can decay to a dark state that is magnetically trapped. The time constant for loading into this magnetic trap is τ d = 410 ms . The total magnetically trapped population is 1.14 × 10 5 atoms, with 85 % residing in the dark states. The magnetically trapped atoms have a temperature of 28 μ K , significantly below the Doppler limit. This population fulfills the requirements for a range of future experiments.
Dysprosium (Dy) is the most magnetic element on the periodic table, making it excellent for studying dipolar atom-atom interactions. We report on a simple Dy MOT that captures atoms directly from the thermal beam using a single diode-laser system to generate the light. Additionally, the atoms are magnetically confined by the quadrupole magnetic field that also facilitates the MOT. The MOT loading time is τb=26 msτ_\text{b} = 26~\text{ms}τb​=26 ms. Atoms can decay to a dark state that is magnetically trapped. The time constant for loading into this magnetic trap is τd=410 msτ_\text{d} = 410~\text{ms}τd​=410 ms. The total magnetically trapped population is 1.14×1051.14\times10^{5}1.14×105 atoms, with 85%85\%85% residing in the dark states. The magnetically trapped atoms have a temperature of 28 μK28~μ\text{K}28 μK, significantly below the Doppler limit. This population fulfills the requirements for a range of future experiments.
Dysprosium is the most magnetic element on the periodic table, which gives it the potential to display exotic physics. To study magnetic interacting atoms, we plan to capture single atoms of Dysprosium in optical tweezers, as done with Rubidium atoms in [1]. The first step is a 3D magneto-optical trap (MOT), which combines the optical molasses technique [2] and spatial-dependent Zeeman splitting [3] to trap a cloud of Dysprosium atoms. The MOT is inside an ultra-high vacuum (UHV) chamber and an effusion cell produces a hot beam of Dysprosium atoms, from which it loads. An amplified external cavity diode laser, locked to an optical reference cavity, generates the 421 nm light that forms the optical molasses. Water-cooled coils in a quadrupole configuration generate the magnetic fields. Our experiment is the first to load the MOT directly in the hot beam, prioritising simplicity over a large MOT population by going without a 2D MOT or Zeeman slower, used in [4] and [5]. This thesis presents our design and implementation of the simple Dysprosium MOT, shown in Fig. 1. We also show the characteristics of the MOT and atomic source. The simplification of the Dysprosium MOT is twofold: it does not require frequency doubling setups to generate the laser light [5,6] and the aforementioned pre-cooling stages [5,7]. Simplifying this process allows more laboratories worldwide to implement Dysprosium trapping and further our understanding of its exotic physics.
Ultracold dysprosium gases, with a magnetic moment 10 times that of alkali atoms and equal only to terbium as the most magnetic atom, are expected to exhibit a multitude of fascinating collisional dynamics and quantum dipolar phases, including quantum liquid crystal physics. We report the first laser cooling and trapping of half a billion Dy atoms using a repumper-free magneto-optical trap (MOT) and continuously loaded magnetic confinement, and we characterize the trap recycling dynamics for bosonic and fermionic isotopes. The first inelastic collision measurements in the few partial wave, 100 microK-1 mK, regime are made in a system possessing a submerged open electronic f shell. In addition, we observe unusual stripes of intra-MOT <10 microK sub-Doppler cooled atoms.
Magneto-optical traps (MOTs) of highly magnetic lanthanides open the door to explorations of novel phases of strongly correlated matter such as lattice supersolids and quantum liquid crystals. We recently reported the first MOTs of the five high-abundance isotopes of the most magnetic atom, dysprosium. Described here are details of the experimental technique employed for repumper-free Dy MOTs containing up to half a billion atoms. Extensive characterization of the MOTs' properties---population, temperature, loading, metastable decay dynamics, and trap dynamics---is provided.
We demonstrated laser cooling and trapping of thulium atoms at sub-Doppler temperatures in a magneto-optical trap (MOT). Up to 3 × 10 6 thulium atoms were trapped in the MOT at temperatures down to 25(5) μK which is approximately 10 times lower than the Doppler limit. The lifetime of atoms in the MOT varied between 0.3–1.5 s and was restricted mostly by optical leaks from the upper cooling level. The lower limit for the leaking rate was estimated to be 22(6) s −1 . Due to a big magnetic moment of Tm atoms, a part of them were trapped in a magnetic trap from the quadrupole field of the MOT. We observed about 3 × 10 4 purely magnetically trapped atoms at temperature of 25 μK with a lifetime in the trap of 0.5 s. Also we set up a “dark” MOT consisting of six crossed hollow beams which increased the number of trapped atoms by a factor of 5 leading to 1.5 × 10 7 atoms at the expense of higher temperature.