Transverse laser cooling of a thermal atomic beam of dysprosium

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates efficient transverse laser cooling of a dysprosium atomic beam to the Doppler limit using a specific optical transition, with implications for isotope manipulation and state identification.

Contribution

It introduces a method for transverse laser cooling of dysprosium atoms at 421 nm, achieving near Doppler limit cooling across all isotopes and proposing enhancements for nonzero-nuclear-spin isotopes.

Findings

Cooling to the Doppler limit was achieved for all observable isotopes.

Branching ratios to metastable states are below 5×10^{-4}.

Proposed schemes for isotope-specific cooling enhancement and trap state identification.

Abstract

A thermal atomic beam of dysprosium (Dy) atoms is cooled using the $4f^{10}6s^2 (J=8) \to 4f^{10}6s6p (J=9)$ transition at 421 nm. The cooling is done via a standing light wave orthogonal to the atomic beam. Efficient transverse cooling to the Doppler limit is demonstrated for all observable isotopes of dysprosium. Branching ratios to metastable states are demonstrated to be $<5\times10^{-4}$. A scheme for enhancement of the nonzero-nuclear-spin-isotope cooling, as well as a method for direct identification of possible trap states, is proposed.