Two-dimensional shelving spectroscopy of ultraviolet ground state transitions in dysprosium

TL;DR

This study explores UV ground state transitions in dysprosium using two-dimensional shelving spectroscopy, revealing their potential for advanced quantum control and precision measurements.

Contribution

It provides detailed measurements of isotope shifts, hyperfine coefficients, and electronic nature of UV transitions in dysprosium, expanding their application scope.

Findings

Identified UV transitions with strong decay to low-lying excited states.

Measured isotope shifts and hyperfine coefficients of UV transitions.

Created King plots to analyze electronic structure.

Abstract

The open inner-shell electronic structure of lanthanides with large magnetic moments gives rise to a rich spectrum of transitions available for laser cooling, trapping, and coherent control. Despite this, the large number of ultraviolet (UV) transitions below 400nm have so far been rarely utilized in dipolar atom experiments. Here, we investigate multiple UV ground state transitions in dysprosium. Several of these UV excited states have the largest decay strengths to the ultralong-lived, low-lying first excited state which are comparable to the most commonly used strongest transitions found in dipolar atoms. Using two-dimensional shelving spectroscopy which improves detection sensitivity and provides a straightforward way to determine the hyperfine-isotope structure and excited state total angular momentum $J$, we measure isotope shifts, hyperfine coefficients, and create King plots to determine their electronic nature. Such knowledge of these UV transitions which analogously exist in other magnetic atoms is important for optically populating the first excited state and can be used towards creating an optical clock, high resolution imaging in quantum gas microscopy, and probing lanthanide nuclei with enhanced Schiff moments in search of physics beyond the standard model.