53 research outputs found
Cooling of Sr to high phase-space density by laser and sympathetic cooling in isotopic mixtures
Based on an experimental study of two-body and three-body collisions in
ultracold strontium samples, a novel optical-sympathetic cooling method in
isotopic mixtures is demonstrated. Without evaporative cooling, a phase-space
density of is obtained with a high spatial density that should
allow to overcome the difficulties encountered so far to reach quantum
degeneracy for Sr atoms.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure
Laser Cooling and Trapping of Atomic Strontium for Ultracold Atoms Physics, High-Precision Spectroscopy and Quantum Sensors
This review describes the production of atomic strontium samples at ultra-low
temperature and at high phase-space density, and their possible use for
physical studies and applications. We describe the process of loading a
magneto-optical trap from an atomic beam and preparing the sample for high
precision measurements. Particular emphasis is given to the applications of
ultracold Sr samples, spanning from optical frequency metrology to force
sensing at micrometer scale.Comment: 34 pages, 19 figure
Cooling and trapping of ultra-cold strontium isotopic mixtures
We present the simultaneous cooling and trapping of an isotopic mixture in a magneto-optical trap and we describe the transfer of the mixture into a conservative, far-off resonant dipole trap. The mixture is prepared with a new technique that applies to intermediate and heavy alkaline earth like atoms. In this work, 88Sr and 86Sr are simultaneously loaded first into the magneto-optical trap operated on the 1S0-3P1 spin-forbidden line at 689 nm, and then transferred into the dipole trap. We observe fast inter-species thermalization in the dipole trap which allows one to set a lower bound on the 88Sr-86Sr elastic cross section
Atom made from charged elementary black hole
It is believed that there may have been a large number of black holes formed
in the very early universe. These would have quantised masses. A charged
``elementary black hole'' (with the minimum possible mass) can capture
electrons, protons and other charged particles to form a ``black hole atom''.
We find the spectrum of such an object with a view to laboratory and
astronomical observation of them, and estimate the lifetime of the bound
states. There is no limit to the charge of the black hole, which gives us the
possibility of observing Z>137 bound states and transitions at the lower
continuum. Negatively charged black holes can capture protons. For Z>1, the
orbiting protons will coalesce to form a nucleus (after beta-decay of some
protons to neutrons), with a stability curve different to that of free nuclei.
In this system there is also the distinct possibility of single quark capture.
This leads to the formation of a coloured black hole that plays the role of an
extremely heavy quark interacting strongly with the other two quarks. Finally
we consider atoms formed with much larger black holes.Comment: 22 pages, 4 figure
Testing the stability of fundamental constants with the 199Hg+ single-ion optical clock
Over a two-year duration, we have compared the frequency of the 199Hg+ 5d106s
2S 1/2 (F=0) 5d9 6s2 2D 5/2 (F=2) electric-quadrupole transition at 282 nm
with the frequency of the ground-state hyperfine splitting in neutral 133Cs.
These measurements show that any fractional time variation of the ratio
nu(Cs)/nu(Hg) between the two frequencies is smaller than +/- 7 10^-15 / yr (1
sigma uncertainty). According to recent atomic structure calculations, this
sets an upper limit to a possible fractional time variation of g(Cs) m_e / m_p
alpha^6.0 at the same level.Comment: 4 pages with 3 figures. RevTeX 4, Submitted to Phys. Rev. Let
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