Narrow-line magneto-optical trap for erbium

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates a robust narrow-line magneto-optical trap for erbium atoms using a 583nm transition, achieving high atom numbers and low temperatures, which improves loading conditions for quantum experiments and may extend to other lanthanides.

Contribution

The authors present a simple, efficient narrow-line MOT scheme for erbium, enhancing cooling and trapping performance over previous methods and applicable to other lanthanide atoms.

Findings

Achieved up to 2×10^8 erbium atoms at 15 μK.

Provided a better starting point for dipole trap loading.

Suggested a general approach for other lanthanide atoms.

Abstract

We report on the experimental realization of a robust and efficient magneto-optical trap for erbium atoms, based on a narrow cooling transition at 583nm. We observe up to $N=2 \times 10^{8}$ atoms at a temperature of about $T=15 \mu K$. This simple scheme provides better starting conditions for direct loading of dipole traps as compared to approaches based on the strong cooling transition alone, or on a combination of a strong and a narrow kHz transition. Our results on Er point to a general, simple and efficient approach to laser cool samples of other lanthanide atoms (Ho, Dy, and Tm) for the production of quantum-degenerate samples.