"Compact Grating Magneto-Optical Traps of Strontium"
Compact systems of laser-cooled alkaline-earth atoms have a wide variety of applications, ranging from portable quantum devices to tests of fundamental physics. In this talk, I will report on the realization of the first magneto-optical trap (MOT) of an alkaline-earth atom with a tetrahedral trap geometry produced by a nanofabricated diffraction grating. We have demonstrated and characterized a broad-line MOT in bosonic 88Sr and fermionic 87Sr. We trap approximately 4x107 atoms of 88Sr and achieve temperatures of around 6 mK, with a trap lifetime of around 1 s. Next, we have demonstrated sawtooth wave adiabatic passage (SWAP) in a narrow-line MOT of 88Sr atoms. In the narrow-line MOT, we trap approximately 3x106 atoms, with an average temperature of 3.4 µK and a trap lifetime of 0.77 s. We also discuss the possibility for a narrow-line grating MOT of the fermionic isotope. Our work with strontium grating MOTs is a step in the direction of compact quantum devices with alkaline-earth atoms.
Finally, I will talk briefly about my current research as a postdoc in Florian Schreck's group at the University of Amsterdam, working towards continuous superradiance on the mHz line of strontium.
