Destabilization of dark states and optical spectroscopy in Zeeman-degenerate atomic systems

We present a general discussion of the techniques of destabilizing dark states in laser-driven atoms with either a magnetic field or modulated laser polarization. We show that the photon scattering rate is maximized at a particular evolution rate of the dark state. We also find that the atomic resonance curve is significantly broadened when the evolution rate is far from this optimum value. These results are illustrated with detailed examples of destabilizing dark states in some commonly-trapped ions and supported by insights derived from numerical calculations and simple theoretical models.Comment: 14 pages, 10 figure

Resonance enhanced isotope-selective photoionization of YbI for ion trap loading

Neutral Ytterbium (YbI) and singly ionized Ytterbium (YbII) is widely used in experiments in quantum optics, metrology and quantum information science. We report on the investigation of isotope selective two-photoionisation of YbI that allows for efficient loading of ion traps with YbII. Results are presented on two-colour (399 nm and 369 nm) and single-colour (399 nm) photoionisation and their efficiency is compared to electron impact ionisation. Nearly deterministic loading of a desired number of YbII ions into a linear Paul trap is demonstrated.Comment: 9 pages. Considerably extended and revised version including new dat