Magic-zero wavelengths of alkali-metal atoms and their applications

TL;DR

This paper uses advanced first-principles calculations to identify specific wavelengths where alkali-metal atoms have zero polarizability, enabling applications like sympathetic cooling and resonance tuning.

Contribution

It introduces a high-precision relativistic all-order computational method to determine magic-zero wavelengths for alkali-metal atoms, expanding their potential applications.

Findings

Identified magic-zero wavelengths for alkali-metal atoms.

Found cases where these wavelengths align with strong resonance transitions.

Discussed applications in sympathetic cooling and resonance control.

Abstract

Using first-principles calculations, we identify "magic-zero" optical wavelengths, \lambda_zero, for which the ground-state frequency-dependent polarizabilities of alkali-metal atoms vanish. Our approach uses high-precision, relativistic all-order methods in which all single, double, and partial triple excitations of the Dirac-Fock wave functions are included to all orders of perturbation theory. We discuss the use of magic-zero wavelengths for sympathetic cooling in two-species mixtures of alkalis with group-II and other elements of interest. Special cases in which these wavelengths coincide with strong resonance transitions in a target system are identified.