Crossed-beam slowing to enhance narrow-line ytterbium magneto-optic traps

Rev Sci Instrum. 2020 Sep 1;91(9):093201. doi: 10.1063/5.0011361.

Abstract

We demonstrate a method to enhance the atom loading rate of a ytterbium (Yb) magneto-optic trap (MOT) operating on the 556 nm 1S03P1 intercombination transition (narrow linewidth Γg = 2π × 182 kHz). Following traditional Zeeman slowing of an atomic beam near the 399 nm 1S01P1 transition (broad linewidth Γp = 2π × 29 MHz), two laser beams in a crossed-beam geometry, frequency tuned near the same transition, provide additional slowing immediately prior to the MOT. Using this technique, we observe an improvement by a factor of 6 in the atom loading rate of a narrow-line Yb MOT. The relative simplicity and generality of this approach make it readily adoptable to other experiments involving narrow-line MOTs. We also present a numerical simulation of this two-stage slowing process, which shows good agreement with the observed dependence on experimental parameters, and use it to assess potential improvements to the method.