Work

Optical pumping of 5 s 4 d 1 D 2 strontium atoms for laser cooling and imaging

Year: 2024

Type: article

Abstract: We present a faster repumping scheme for strontium magneto-optical traps operating on the broad 5 s 2 1 S 0 − 5 s 5 p 1 P 1 laser cooling transition. Contrary to existing repumping schemes, we directly address lost atoms that spontaneously decayed to the 5 s 4 d 1 D 2 state, sending them back into the laser cooling cycle by optical pumping on the 5 s 4 d 1 D 2 − 5 s 8 p 1 P 1 transition. We thus avoid the ∼ 100 µ s -slow decay path from 5 s 4 d 1 D 2 to the 5 s 5 p 3 P 1 , 2 states that is part of other repumping schemes. Using one low-cost external-cavity diode laser emitting at 448 nm , we show our scheme increases the flux out of a 2D magneto-optical trap by 60 % compared to without repumping. Furthermore, we perform spectroscopy on the 5 s 4 d 1 D 2 − 5 s 8 p 1 P 1 transition and measure its frequency ν Sr 88 = ( 668917515.3 ± 4.0 ± 25 ) MHz . We also measure the frequency shifts between the four stable isotopes of strontium and infer the specific mass and field shift factors, δ ν SMS 88 , 86 =<

Source: Physical Review Research

DOI: 10.1103/physrevresearch.6.013319

Authors: Jens Samland, Shayne Bennetts, Chun-Chia Chen, Rodrigo González Escudero, Florian Schreck, Benjamin Pasquiou