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Laser cooling and trapping of Yb from a thermal source

Umakant D. Rapol·Anusha Krishna·Ajay Wasan·Vasant Natarajan
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Abstract

We have successfully loaded a magneto-optic trap for Yb atoms from a thermal source without the use of a Zeeman slower. The source is placed close to the trapping region so that it provides a large flux of atoms that can be cooled and captured. The atoms are cooled on the ${^1S_0} \leftrightarrow {^1P_1}$ transition at 398.8 nm. We have loaded all seven stable isotopes of Yb into the trap. For the most abundant isotope ($^{174}$Yb), we load more than $10^7$ atoms into the trap within 1 s. For the rarest isotope ($^{168}$Yb) with a natural abundance of only 0.13%, we still load about $4 \times 10^5$ atoms into the trap. We find that the trap population is maximized near a detuning of $-1.5Γ$ and field gradient of 75 G/cm.

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Umakant D. Rapol, Anusha Krishna, Ajay Wasan, Vasant Natarajan. 2002-09-05. Laser cooling and trapping of Yb from a thermal source. https://doi.org/10.1140/epjd%2Fe2004-00041-3

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