Understanding one-body losses in magnetically trapped metastable europium atoms

TL;DR

This paper measures one-body loss rates in magnetically trapped metastable europium atoms, identifying blackbody radiation as the main loss mechanism through experimental data and modeling.

Contribution

It provides the first measurement of one-body loss rates for europium isotopes and demonstrates blackbody radiation as the primary loss process.

Findings

Loss rates of approximately 2.6 s^{-1} for both isotopes

Blackbody radiation induces E1 transitions causing atom loss

Rate-equation model matches experimental loss measurements

Abstract

We report the measurement of one-body loss rates for magnetically trapped metastable europium atoms and the study of their loss mechanism. The loss of atoms observed in a magneto-optical trap is not fully understood because of the indivisibility of the loss regarding optical pumpings due to the presence of cooling laser beams. We magnetically trapped the atoms by directly loading from the magneto-optical trap and observed almost identical one-body loss rates of approximately $2.6\,\mathrm{s^{-1}}$ for two isotopes: $\mathrm{{}^{151}Eu}$ and $\mathrm{{}^{153}Eu}$. Our rate-equation-based model, combined with loss rate measurements carried out with repumpers, shows that blackbody radiation at room temperature drives E1 transitions and induces the observed losses.