Laser Cooling Transitions in Atomic Erbium

Published

April 18, 2005

Author(s)

H Ban, M Jacka, James L. Hanssen, Joseph Reader, Jabez J. McClelland

Abstract

We discuss laser cooling opportunities in atomic erbium, identifying five J rarr} J + 1 transitions from the 4f¹²6s^{2 3}H₆ ground state that are accessible to common visible and near-infrared continuous-wave tunable lasers. We present lifetime measurements for the 4f¹¹(⁴I^o_15/2)5d_5/26s² (15/2, 5/2)₇^o state at 11888 cm^-1 and the 4f¹¹(⁴I^o _13/2)5d_3/26s² (13/2, 5/2)₇^o state at 15847 cm^-1 showing values of 20 plus or minus} 4 υs and 5.6 plus or minus} 1.4 υs, respectively. We also present a calculated value of 13 plus or minus} 7 s^-1 for the transition rate from the 4f¹¹(⁴I^o _15/2)5d_3/26s² (15/2, 3/2)₇^o state at 7697 cm^-1 to the ground state, based on scaled Hartree-Fock energy parameters. Laser cooling on these transitions in combination with a strong, fast (5.8 ns) laser cooling transition at 401 nm, suggest new opportunities for narrowband laser cooling of a large-magnetic moment atom, with possible applications in quantum information processing, high-precision atomic clocks, quantum degenerate gases, and deterministic single-atom doping of materials.

Citation

Optics Express

Volume

13

Issue

8

Pub Type

Journals

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Keywords

erbium, laser cooling, lifetimes

Citation

Ban, H. , Jacka, M. , Hanssen, J. , Reader, J. and McClelland, J. (2005), Laser Cooling Transitions in Atomic Erbium, Optics Express, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=620571 (Accessed October 14, 2025)