Fast Non-destructive temperature measurement of two-electrons atoms in a magneto-optical trap

Abstract

We extend the technique originally proposed by Honda et al.to measure the temperature of Ytterbium and alkine-earth atoms confined in a Magneto-Optical Trap (MOT). The method is based on the analysis of excitation spectra obtained by probing the 1S0->3P1 inter-combination line. Thanks to a careful analysis and modeling of the effects caused by the MOT light on the probe transition we overcome the resolution and precision limits encountered in previous works. Ground state light shift and Rabi broadening are measured and successfully compared with calculated values. This knowledge allows us to properly extract the Doppler contribution to the linewidth, thus obtaining a reliable measurement of the cloud temperature. We finally show how spectroscopy on free-falling atoms provides an alternative method to determine the sample temperature which resembles the standard time-of-flight technique.

11 pages, 12 figures

References in corpus (3)

• Degenerate Fermi Gases of Ytterbium
• All-Optical Formation of Quantum Degenerate Mixtures
• A scalable quantum computer with an ultranarrow optical transition of ultracold neutral atoms in an optical lattice

Cited by in corpus (5)

• Doppler cooling to the Quantum limit
• Optical bistability and nonlinear dynamics by saturation of cold Yb atoms in a cavity
• Continuous-wave virtual-state lasing from cold ytterbium atoms
• Clock and inter-combination line frequency separation in ${}^{171}$Yb
• Spectroscopy and laser cooling on the ${}^1{S}_0-{}^3{P}_1$ line in Yb via an injection-locked diode laser at 1111.6nm