Achieving very long lifetimes in optical lattices with pulsed cooling

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates a method to extend the lifetime of atoms in an optical lattice to over 300 seconds by implementing pulsed laser cooling every 20 seconds, significantly reducing atom loss.

Contribution

The authors achieved a fivefold increase in atom lifetime in a 1D optical lattice through a novel pulsed cooling technique, aligning experimental results with theoretical heating models.

Findings

Atom lifetime exceeded 300 seconds with pulsed cooling.

Negligible atom loss within first 20 seconds without cooling.

Quantitative agreement between measured fluctuations and theoretical heating rates.

Abstract

We have realized a one dimensional optical lattice for individual atoms with a lifetime >300 s, which is 5 times longer than previously reported. In order to achieve this long lifetime, it is necessary to laser cool the at-oms briefly every 20 s to overcome heating due to technical fluctuations in the trapping potential. Without cooling, we observe negligible atom loss within the first 20 s followed by an exponential decay with a 62 s time constant. We obtain quantitative agreement with the measured fluctuations of the trapping potential and the corresponding theoretical heating rates.