Proposal for laser-cooling of rare-earth ions

Abstract

The efficiency of laser-cooling relies on the existence of an almost closed optical-transition cycle in the energy spectrum of the considered species. In this respect rare-earth elements exhibit many transitions which are likely to induce noticeable leaks from the cooling cycle. In this work, to determine whether laser-cooling of singly-ionized erbium Er${}^{+}$ is feasible, we have performed accurate electronic-structure calculations of energies and spontaneous-emission Einstein coefficients of Er${}^{+}$, using a combination of \textit{ab initio} and least-square-fitting techniques. We identify five weak closed transitions suitable for laser-cooling, the broadest of which is in the kilohertz range. For the strongest transitions, by simulating the cascade dynamics of spontaneous emission, we show that repumping is necessary, and we discuss possible repumping schemes. We expect our detailed study on Er${}^{+}$ to give a good insight into laser-cooling of neighboring ions like Dy${}^{+}$.

5 pages, 2 figures

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• Optical trapping of ultracold dysprosium atoms: transition probabilities, dynamic dipole polarizabilities and van der Waals $C_6$ coefficients
• Anisotropic optical trapping as a manifestation of the complex electronic structure of ultracold lanthanide atoms: the example of holmium
• Production of NaCa${}^{+}$ molecular ions in the ground state from cold atom-ion mixtures by photoassociation via an intermediate state
• Observation of a narrow inner-shell orbital transition in atomic erbium at 1299 nm
• Laser ablation production of Ba, Ca, Dy, Er, La, Lu, and Yb ions
• Ultracold rare-earth magnetic atoms with an electric dipole moment
• Bimodal momentum distribution of laser-cooled atoms in optical lattices
• Comparison of Hartree-Fock and Hartree-Fock-Slater approximations for calculation of radiation damage dynamics of light and heavy atoms in the field of x-ray free electron laser
• Hyperfine spectroscopy of optical-cycling transitions in singly ionized thulium