Narrow-line magneto-optical cooling and trapping of strongly magnetic atoms

Abstract

Laser cooling on weak transitions is a useful technique for reaching ultracold temperatures in atoms with multiple valence electrons. However, for strongly magnetic atoms a conventional narrow-line magneto-optical trap (MOT) is destabilized by competition between optical and magnetic forces. We overcome this difficulty in Er by developing an unusual narrow-line MOT that balances optical and magnetic forces using laser light tuned to the blue side of a narrow (8 kHz) transition. The trap population is spin-polarized with temperatures reaching below 2 microkelvin. Our results constitute an alternative method for laser cooling on weak transitions, applicable to rare-earth-metal and metastable alkaline earth elements.

arXiv commentTo appear in Phys. Rev. Lett. 4 pages, 5 figures

References in corpus (6)

• Doppler cooling and trapping on forbidden transitions
• Quenched Narrow-Line Laser Cooling of 40Ca to Near the Photon Recoil Limit
• Narrow Line Cooling and Momentum-Space Crystals
• Narrow Line Cooling: Finite Photon Recoil Dynamics
• Photoassociative spectroscopy at long range in ultracold strontium
• Sub-Doppler laser cooling and magnetic trapping of erbium

Cited by in corpus (39)

• A Strongly Dipolar Bose-Einstein Condensate of Dysprosium
• Quantum degenerate dipolar Fermi gas
• Dipolar physics: A review of experiments with magnetic quantum gases
• Trapping ultracold dysprosium: a highly magnetic gas for dipolar physics
• Beyond Mean-Field Low-Lying Excitations of Dipolar Bose Gases
• Narrow-line magneto-optical trap for erbium
• Dysprosium magneto-optical traps
• Standard Model tests with trapped radioactive atoms
• Rapid Cooling to Quantum Degeneracy in Dynamically Shaped Atom Traps
• Laser cooling for quantum gases
• Spectroscopy of a narrow-line laser cooling transition in atomic dysprosium
• Narrow-line magneto-optical trap for dysprosium atoms
• Searching for Non-Abelian Phases in the Bose-Einstein Condensate of Dysprosium
• Optical cooling and trapping of highly magnetic atoms: The benefits of a spontaneous spin polarization
• Prospects for a Narrow Line MOT in YO
• Dynamic polarizabilities and magic wavelengths for dysprosium
• A steady-state magneto-optical trap with 100 fold improved phase-space density
• Doppler cooling to the Quantum limit
• Spin textures in condensates with large dipole moments
• Systematic optimization of laser cooling of dysprosium
• Two-temperature momentum distribution in a Thulium magneto-optical trap
• A two-dimensional magneto-optical trap of dysprosium atoms as a compact source for efficient loading of a narrow-line three-dimensional magneto-optical trap
• Groundstate and Collective Modes of a Spin-Polarized Dipolar Bose-Einstein Condensate in a Harmonic Trap
• Optimized loading of an optical dipole trap for the production of Chromium BECs
• Narrow-line cooling of ${}^{87}$Rb using 5S${}_{1/2}\to$ 6P${}_{3/2}$ open transition at 420 nm
• Helical spin textures in dipolar Bose-Einstein condensates
• Zeeman slowing of thulium atoms
• A new setup for experiments with ultracold Dysprosium atoms
• Effective dipole-dipole interactions in multilayered dipolar Bose-Einstein condensates
• Sub-second production of a quantum degenerate gas
• Application of lasers to ultracold atoms and molecules
• Elementary excitations in dipolar spin-1 Bose-Einstein condensates
• Continuous loading of magneto-optical trap of Rb at narrow transition
• Laser Cooling with Adiabatic Transfer on a Raman Transition
• New opportunites for interactions and control with ultracold lanthanides
• Superfluidity in density imbalanced bilayers of dipolar fermions
• Role of spontaneously generated coherence (SGC) in laser cooling of atoms
• Laser Cooling at Resonance
• Improving the spectroscopic knowledge of neutral Neodymium