在近简并、相反宇称能级的镝原子（Dy）之间的射频电偶极跃迁被监测了8个月，以寻找精细结构常数$α$的变化。这些数据提供了$(-2.4\pm2.3)\times10^{-15}$ yr $^{-1}$的$α$的分数时间变化率或$k_α$的$(-7.8 \pm 5.9) \times 10^{-6}$值，即变化的重力位中$α$的变化系数。所有结果表明，在目前的灵敏度水平上没有显著变化。我们还介绍了镝原子束的激光冷却的初步结果。
英文摘要：
Radio-frequency electric-dipole transitions between nearly degenerate, opposite parity levels of atomic dysprosium (Dy) were monitored over an eight-month period to search for a variation in the fine-structure constant, $α$. The data provide a rate of fractional temporal variation of $α$ of $(-2.4\pm2.3)\times10^{-15}$ yr$^{-1}$ or a value of $(-7.8 \pm 5.9) \times 10^{-6}$ for $k_α$, the variation coefficient for $α$ in a changing gravitational potential. All results indicate the absence of significant variation at the present level of sensitivity. We also present initial results on laser cooling of an atomic beam of dysprosium.
We present the first direct excitation of the presumably ultra-narrow $1001 \, \textrm{nm}$ ground state transition in atomic dysproium. By using resonance ionization spectroscopy with pulsed Ti:sapphire lasers at a hot cavity laser ion source, we were able to measure the isotopic shifts in the $1001 \, \textrm{nm}$ line between all seven stable isotopes. Furthermore, we determined the upper level energy from the atomic transition frequency of the $^{164} \textrm{Dy}$ isotope as $9991.004(1) \, \textrm{cm}^{-1}$ and confirm the level energy listed in the NIST database. Since a sufficiently nar…
We report on an apparatus for cooling and trapping of neutral dysprosium. We characterize and optimize the performance of our Zeeman slower and 2D molasses cooling of the atomic beam by means of Doppler spectroscopy on a 136 kHz broad transition at 626 nm. Furthermore, we demonstrate the characterization and optimization procedure for the loading phase of a magneto-optical trap (MOT) by increasing the effective laser linewidth by sideband modulation. After optimization of the MOT compression phase, we cool and trap up to $10^9$ atoms within 3 seconds in the MOT at temperatures of 9 μK and phas…
Hyperfine and Zeeman Optical Pumping and Transverse Laser Cooling of a Thermal Atomic Beam of Dysprosium Using a Single 421 nm Laser
Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz（约翰内斯·古腾堡美因茨大学）；Helmholtz-Institut Mainz, GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung（亥姆霍兹美因茨研究所，GSI重离子研究中心）；Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Technology Tirupati（蒂鲁帕蒂印度理工学院物理系）；Korea National University of Education（韩国国立教育大学）；Department of Physics, University of California, Berkeley（加州大学伯克利分校物理系）
We characterize the anisotropic differential ac-Stark shift for the Dy $626$ nm intercombination transition, induced in a far-detuned $1070$ nm optical dipole trap, and observe the existence of a "magic polarization" for which the polarizabilities of the ground and excited states are equal. From our measurements we extract both the scalar and tensorial components of the dynamic dipole polarizability for the excited state, $α_E^\text{s} = 188 (12)\,α_\text{0}$ and $α_E^\text{t} = 34 (12)\,α_\text{0}$, respectively, where $α_\text{0}$ is the atomic unit for the electric polarizability. We also p…
A recent progress on laser cooling of molecules is summarized. Since the development during 1980s for atomic species, laser cooling has been the very beginning step to cool and trap atoms for frontier research on quantum simulations, quantum sensing and precision measurements. Despite the complex internal structures of molecules, laser cooling of molecules have been realized with the deepened understanding of molecular structures and interaction between light and molecules. The development of laser technology over the last decades have also been a great aid for laser cooling of molecules becau…
Recently, laser cooling methods have been extended from atoms to molecules. The complex rotational and vibrational energy level structure of molecules makes laser cooling difficult, but these difficulties have been overcome and molecules have now been cooled to a few microkelvin and trapped for several seconds. This opens many possibilities for applications in quantum science and technology, controlled chemistry, and tests of fundamental physics. This article explains how molecules can be decelerated, cooled and trapped using laser light, reviews the progress made in recent years, and outlines…
In this paper laser cooling of atoms with a narrow-line optical transition, i.e. in regimes of quantum nature of laser-light interactions resulting in a significant recoil effect, is studied. It is demonstrated that a minimum laser cooling temperature for two-level atom in standing wave reached for red detuning close to 3 recoil frequency greatly different from the theory used for a semiclassical description of Doppler cooling. A set of dimensionless parameters uniquely characterizing the time evolution and the steady state of different atoms with narrow-line optical transitions in the laser f…
We demonstrate the laser cooling of 85Rb atoms in a two-dimensional optical lattice. We follow the two-step degenerate Raman sideband cooling scheme [Kerman et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 84, 439 (2000)], where a fast cooling of atoms to an auxiliary state is followed by a slow cooling to a dark state. This method has the advantage of independent control of the heating rate and cooling rate from the optical pumping beam. We operate the lattice at a Lamb-Dicke parameter eta=0.45 and show the cooling of spin-polarized 85Rb atoms to the recoil temperature in both dimension within 2.4 ms with the aid of…
We present a magnetically enhanced laser cooling scheme applicable to multi-level type-II transitions and further diatomic molecules with adiabatic transfer. An angled magnetic field is introduced to not only remix the dark states, but also decompose the multi-level system into several two-level sub-systems in time-ordering, hence allowing multiple photon momentum transfer. For complex multi-level diatomic molecules, although the enhancement gets weakened, our simulations still predict a $\sim 4\times$ larger value of the maximum achievable cooling force and a wider coolable velocity range com…
We theoretically investigate the laser cooling of fermionic barium monofluoride (137BaF) molecules, which are promising candidates for precision studies of weak parity violation and nuclear anapole moments. This molecular species features two nuclear spins, resulting in a hyperfine structure that is considerably more complicated than the one found in the usual laser-cooled diatomics. We use optical Bloch equations and rate equations to show that optical cycling, sub-Doppler cooling and bichromatic forces can all be realized under realistically achievable experimental conditions.
We present the first extended-cavity diode laser in Littrow configuration operating in the cyan wavelength range around 497 nm. The gallium-nitride based diode laser features a free-space output with up to 60 mW, operates in a single frequency mode, is tunable over a range of more than 8 nm and has a Lorentzian linewidth of less than 90 kHz. A detailed characterization of the tuning capabilities of the diode laser and its emission spectrum is provided. This compact, simple and low cost laser source replaces more complex systems based on frequency doubling and therefore simplifies the developme…
We demonstrate 1D simultaneous laser cooling of $^{87}$Rb and $^{85}$Rb atoms using an optical frequency comb. By adjusting the pulse repetition frequency and the offset frequency, the frequency comb spectrum is tuned to ensure that two distinct frequency comb modes are simultaneously red-detuned from the cooling transitions, one mode for each species. Starting from a pre-cooled cloud of $^{85,87}$Rb atoms at above-Doppler temperatures, we show simultaneous cooling of both species down to the Doppler temperature using two counter-propagating $σ$$^{+}$/$σ$$^{-}$-polarized beams from the frequen…
Laser cooling is a key ingredient for quantum control of atomic systems in a variety of settings. In divalent atoms, two-stage Doppler cooling is typically used to bring atoms to the uK regime. Here, we implement a pulsed radial cooling scheme using the ultranarrow 1S0-3P0 clock transition in ytterbium to realize sub-recoil temperatures, down to tens of nK. Together with sideband cooling along the one-dimensional lattice axis, we efficiently prepare atoms in shallow lattices at an energy of 6 lattice recoils. Under these conditions key limits on lattice clock accuracy and instability are reduc…
Cooling molecular vibrations with shaped laser pulses: Optimal control theory exploiting the timescale separation between coherent excitation and spontaneous emission
We demonstrate a laser frequency stabilization technique for laser cooling of Potassium atoms, based on saturated absorption spectroscopy in the C-Band optical telecommunication window, using ro-vibrationel transitions of the acetylene molecule ($12$C$_2$H$_2$). We identified and characterized several molecular lines, which allow to address each of the potassium D2 (767 nm) and D1 (770 nm) cooling transitions, thanks to a high-power second harmonic generation (SHG) stage. We successfully used this laser system to cool the $^{41}$K isotope of potassium in a 2D-3D Magneto-Optical Traps setup.
Laser cooling exploits the physics of light scattering to cool atomic and molecular gases to close to absolute zero. It is the crucial initial step for essentially all atomic gas experiments in which Bose-Einstein condensation and, more generally, quantum degeneracy is reached. The ongoing development of laser-cooling methods has allowed more elements to be brought to quantum degeneracy, with each additional atomic species offering its own experimental opportunities. Improved methods are opening new avenues, for example, reaching Bose-Einstein condensation purely through laser cooling as well …
We report direct laser cooling of a symmetric top molecule, reducing the transverse temperature of a beam of calcium monomethoxide (CaOCH$_3$) to $1.8\pm0.7$ mK while addressing two distinct nuclear spin isomers. These results open a path to efficient production of ultracold chiral molecules and conclusively demonstrate that by using proper rovibronic optical transitions, both photon cycling and laser cooling of complex molecules can be as efficient as for much simpler linear species.
