US 12,035,456 B2
Magneto-optical trap method and apparatus using positive and negative g-factors
Hiromitsu Imai, Tokyo (JP); Tomoya Akatsuka, Tokyo (JP); Katsuya Oguri, Tokyo (JP); Atsushi Ishizawa, Tokyo (JP); Hideki Gotoh, Tokyo (JP); Hidetoshi Katori, Saitama (JP); and Masao Takamoto, Saitama (JP)
Assigned to NIPPON TELEGRAPH AND TELEPHONE CORPORATION, Tokyo (JP); and RIKEN, Saitama (JP)
Filed by NIPPON TELEGRAPH AND TELEPHONE CORPORATION, Tokyo (JP); and RIKEN, Saitama (JP)
Filed on Sep. 5, 2023, as Appl. No. 18/461,176.
Application 18/461,176 is a division of application No. 16/799,626, filed on Feb. 24, 2020, granted, now 11,800,629.
Claims priority of application No. 2019-032461 (JP), filed on Feb. 26, 2019.
Prior Publication US 2023/0422386 A1, Dec. 28, 2023
Int. Cl. H05H 3/02 (2006.01); G04F 5/14 (2006.01); G21K 1/093 (2006.01)
CPC H05H 3/02 (2013.01) [G04F 5/145 (2013.01); G21K 1/093 (2013.01)] 4 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A magneto-optical trap method comprising steps of:
applying a magnetic field to an atom encapsulated in a vacuum vessel and having a nuclear spin of not less than 3/2 by using an anti-Helmholtz coil;
generating a laser beam including a first laser beam detuned from a first resonance frequency when the atom transits from a total angular momentum quantum number F in a ground state related to a hyperfine structure to a total angular momentum quantum number F′=F+1 in an excited state related to the hyperfine structure, and a second laser beam detuned from a second resonance frequency when the atom transits from the total angular momentum quantum number F in the ground state related to the hyperfine structure to a total angular momentum quantum number F′=F−1 in the excited state related to the hyperfine structure, among transitions of the atom from a total angular momentum quantum number J=0 in a ground state related to a fine structure to a total angular momentum quantum number J′=1 in an excited state related to the fine structure, by multiplexing the first laser beam and the second laser beam; and
irradiating the laser beam including the first laser beam and the second laser beam toward the atom in the vacuum vessel from a plurality of directions including at least a pair of opposite directions, and simultaneously making the first laser beam trap the atom in a state that a magnetic quantum number is negative, and the second laser beam trap the atom in a state that the magnetic quantum number is positive,
wherein the atom is a 173 ytterbium atom, and
wherein the step of generating includes steps of:
generating, as the first laser beam, a laser beam detuned from the first resonance frequency when the 173 ytterbium atom transits from a total angular momentum quantum number F=5/2 in the ground state related to the hyperfine structure to a total angular momentum quantum number F′=7/2 in the excited state related to the hyperfine structure; and
generating, as the second laser beam, a laser beam detuned from the second resonance frequency when the 173 ytterbium atom transits from the total angular momentum quantum number F=5/2 in the ground state related to the hyperfine structure to a total angular momentum quantum number F′=3/2 in the excited state related to the hyperfine structure.