Laser cooling and trapping of ytterbium atoms

Abstract

The experiments on the laser cooling and trapping of ytterbium atoms are reported, including the two-dimensional transversal cooling, longitudinal velocity Zeeman deceleration, and a magneto-optical trap with a broadband transition at a wavelength of 399 nm. The magnetic field distributions along the axis of a Zeeman slower were measured and in a good agreement with the calculated results. Cold ytterbium atoms were produced with a number of about 10⁷ and a temperature of a few milli-Kelvin. In addition, using a 556-nm laser, the excitations of cold ytterbium atoms at ¹S₀-³P₁ transition were observed. The ytterbium atoms will be further cooled in a 556-nm magneto-optical trap and loaded into a three-dimensional optical lattice to make an ytterbium optical clock.

Keywords

laser cooling and trapping / ytterbium / magneto–optical trap / optical frequency standards

References

[1] M. Takamoto, F. Hong, R. Higashi, and H. Katori, Nature, 2005, 435: 321

[2] A. Brusch, R. L. Targat, X. Baillard, M. Fouche, and P. Lemonde, Phys. Rev. Lett., 2006, 96: 103003

[3] A. D. Ludlow, T. Zelevinsky, G. K. Campbell, S. Blatt, M. M. Boyd, M. H. G. de Miranda, M. J. Martin, J.W. Thomsen, S. M. Foreman, J. Ye, T. M. Fortier, J. E. Stalnaker, S. A. Diddams, Y. Le Coq, Z. W. Barber, N. Poli, N. D. Lemke, K. M. Beck, and C. W. Oates, Science, 2008, 319: 1805

[4] N. Poli, Z. W. Barber, N. D. Lemke, C. W. Oates, L. S. Ma, J. E. Stalnaker, T. M. Fortier, S. A. Diddams, L. Hollberg, J. C. Bergquist, A. Brusch, S. Jefferts, T. Heavner, and T. Parker, Phys. Rev. A, 2008, 77: 050501(R)

[5] Z. W. Barber, C. W. Hoyt, C. W. Oates, and L. Hollberg, A. V. Taichenachev, and V. I. Yudin, Phys. Rev. Lett., 2006, 96: 083002

[6] Z. W. Barber, J. E. Stalnaker, N. D. Lemke, N. Poli, C.W. Oates, T. M. Fortier, S. A. Diddams, L. Hollberg, and C. W. Hoyt, A. V. Taichenachev, and V. I. Yudin, Phys. Rev. Lett., 2008, 100: 103002

[7] T. P. Heavner, S. R. Jefferts, E. A. Donley, J. H. Shirley, and T. E. Parker, Metrologia, 2005, 42: 411

[8] K. Honda, Y. Takahashi, T. Kuwamoto, M. Fujimoto, and K. Toyoda, Phys. Rev. A, 1999, 59: R934

[9] T. Loftus, J. R. Bochinski, R. Shivitz, and T. W. Mossberg, Phys. Rev. A, 2000, 61: 051401(R)

[10] C. Y. Park and T. H. Yoon, Phys. Rev. A, 2003, 68: 055401

[11] R. Maruyama, R. H. Wynar, M. V. Romalis, A. Andalkar, M. D. Swallows, C. E. Pearson, and E. N. Fortson, Phys. Rev. A, 2003, 68: 011403

RIGHTS & PERMISSIONS

Higher Education Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg