Second-Stage Laser Cooling of Ytterbium Atoms without Using a First-Stage Magneto-Optical Trap
Anton P. Vyalykh, Anastasia V. Semenko, A. V. Kohanov +2 more
A compact laser cooling system for transportable optical lattice clocks based on cold 171 Yb atoms has been presented. The system size has been reduced by eliminating the first cooling stage and using compact configurations for the main subsystems of the laser cooling system. A Zeeman slower has been modeled and developed, reducing the velocity of atoms from a thermal source to a level sufficient for their direct capture in a second-stage magneto-optical trap, avoiding the first cooling stage. A method for estimating the number of atoms and their temperature in the magneto-optical trap is presented. The performance of the compact laser cooling system with the developed Zeeman slower has been experimentally confirmed: ~10 6 171 Yb atoms with a temperature of ~35 μK have been collected in ~1 s. The achieved parameters allow for loading of ~4000 atoms into the optical lattice.
Journal of Experimental and Theoretical Physics Letters•Jun 1, 2026•0 citations