Confinement of an alkaline-earth element in a grating magneto-optical trap

Abstract

We demonstrate a compact magneto-optical trap (MOT) of alkaline-earth atoms using a nanofabricated diffraction grating chip. A single input laser beam, resonant with the broad ${}^1$S${}_0\to {}^1$P${}_1$ transition of strontium, forms the MOT in combination with three diffracted beams from the grating chip and a magnetic field produced by permanent magnets. A differential pumping tube limits the effect of the heated, effusive source on the background pressure in the trapping region. The system has a total volume of around 2.4 L. With our setup, we have trapped up to $5\times 10^6$ ${}^{88}$Sr atoms, at a temperature of approximately $6$ mK, and with a trap lifetime of approximately 1 s. Our results will aid the effort to miniaturize optical atomic clocks and other quantum technologies based on alkaline-earth atoms.

arXiv comment6 pages, 6 figures

References in corpus (24)

• An atomic clock with $10^{-18}$ instability
• A New Method for Gravitational Wave Detection with Atomic Sensors
• JILA SrI Optical Lattice Clock with Uncertainty of $2.0\times 10^{-18}$
• A transportable optical lattice clock with $7\times 10^{-17}$ uncertainty
• Bose-Einstein Condensation of Strontium
• A surface-patterned chip as a strong source of ultra-cold atoms for quantum technologies
• Photonic waveguide mode to free-space Gaussian beam extreme mode converter
• Production of quantum degenerate strontium gases: Larger, better, faster, colder
• Magnetic trapping of metastable ${}^3{P}_2$ atomic strontium
• Single-laser, one beam, tetrahedral magneto-optical trap
• Laser cooling with a single laser beam and a planar diffractor
• Absolute measurement of the ${}^1{S}_0$ - ${}^3{P}_0$ clock transition in neutral ${}^{88}$Sr over the 330 km-long stabilized fibre optic link
• Integrated magneto-optical traps on a chip
• Sub-Doppler Cooling of Neutral Atoms in a Grating Magneto-Optical Trap
• Sr atom interferometry with the optical clock transition as a gravimeter and a gravity gradiometer
• Single-beam Zeeman slower and magneto-optical trap using a nanofabricated grating
• Phase-space properties of magneto-optical traps utilising micro-fabricated gratings
• Observation of quantum diffractive collisions using shallow atomic traps
• Two-dimensional grating magneto-optical trap
• A scripted control system for autonomous hardware timed experiments
• Design and fabrication of diffractive atom chips for laser cooling and trapping
• Optical frequency standards for gravitational wave detection using satellite Doppler velocimetry
• A 3D-printed alkali metal dispenser
• Enhanced Magnetic Trap Loading for Atomic Strontium

Cited by in corpus (14)

• A Compact Cold-Atom Interferometer with a High Data-Rate Grating Magneto-Optical Trap and a Photonic-Integrated-Circuit-Compatible Laser System
• Invited Review: Micro-fabricated components for cold atom sensors
• PyLCP: A python package for computing laser cooling physics
• A simple imaging solution for chip-scale laser cooling
• Comparison of two multiplexed portable cold-atom vacuum standards
• Grating magneto-optical traps with complicated level structures
• Bose-Einstein-condensate source on an optical-grating-based atom chip for quantum sensor applications
• Optimal binary gratings for multi-wavelength magneto-optical traps
• $\Lambda$-enhanced gray molasses in a tetrahedral laser beam geometry
• Single-beam grating-chip 3D and 1D optical lattices
• Cold-atom shaping with MEMS scanning mirrors
• Limitation of single-repumping schemes for laser cooling of Sr atoms
• Grating magneto-optical trap of cesium atoms with an additional retroreflected laser beam
• Direct loading of a Sr magneto-optical trap from a thermal atomic beam