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On the feasibility of cooling and trapping metastable alkaline-earth atoms

Andrei Derevianko
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Abstract

Metastability and long-range interactions of Mg, Ca, and Sr in the lowest-energy metastable $^3P_2$ state are investigated. The calculated lifetimes are 38 minutes for Mg*, 118 minutes for Ca*, and 17 minutes for Sr*, supporting feasibility of cooling and trapping experiments. The quadrupole-quadrupole long-range interactions of two metastable atoms are evaluated for various molecular symmetries. Hund's case (c) 4_g potential possesses a large 100-1000 K potential barrier. Therefore magnetic trap losses can possibly be reduced using cold metastable atoms in a stretched M=2 state. Calculations were performed in the framework of ab initio relativistic configuration interaction method coupled with the random-phase approximation.

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Andrei Derevianko. 2001-05-10. On the feasibility of cooling and trapping metastable alkaline-earth atoms. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.87.023002

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