Chirped magneto-optical trap of molybdenum

Published

December 12, 2025

Author(s)

Sai Naga Manoj Paladugu, Nickolas Pilgram, Stephen Eckel, Eric Norrgard

Abstract

We have directly loaded a cryogenic beam of molybdenum atoms into a magneto-optical trap. By chirping the detuning of the trapping lasers, we were able to enhance the number of atoms loaded into the trap by more than a factor of 2. We optimize the trapped samples for atom number, temperature, and lifetime by varying the laser-cooling parameters. The laser-cooled molybdenum atoms are subsequently transferred to a magnetic trap where we achieve vacuum-limited lifetimes of 100 ms. Comparison of magneto-optical trap and magnetic trap lifetimes allow us to extract partial decay rates of the z 7Po4 → a 5D4 and z 7Po4 → a 5D3 transitions. We also provide measurements of the isotope shifts for the a 7S3 → z 7Po4 transition with up to four times better precision than previously reported. Finally, we discuss the prospect of applying the chriped magneto-optical trap to produce laser-cooled samples of MgF.

Citation

Physical Review A

Volume

112

Issue

6

Pub Type

Journals

Download Paper

https://doi.org/10.1103/49lr-6slw

Local Download

Keywords

atomic physics, laser cooling, molecular physics, themometry metrology, time and frequency metrology, pressure and vacuum metrology, spectroscopy

Citation

Paladugu, S. , Pilgram, N. , Eckel, S. and Norrgard, E. (2025), Chirped magneto-optical trap of molybdenum, Physical Review A, [online], https://doi.org/10.1103/49lr-6slw, https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=960333 (Accessed December 20, 2025)