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A: Fachverband Atomphysik

A 26: Posters: BECs, ultracold gases and plasmas

A 26.14: Poster

Donnerstag, 13. März 2008, 16:30–18:30, Poster C3

Magnetic Trapping of metastable Magnesium — •M. Riedmann, J. Friebe, K. Moldenhauer, A. Pape, A. Voskrebenzev, E. M. Rasel, and W. Ertmer — Institute of Quantum Optics, Leibniz University Hannover

Magnesium is one of the few atoms suitable for an neutral atom optical lattice clock. The magic wavelength is predicted between 430 and 470 nm and Mg offers interesting features like a reduced sensitivity to room temperature blackbody radiation, which may limit the accuracy of Sr lattice clocks in the near future. Currently, the high temperatures of more than 3 mK in a MOT based on the strong singlet cooling transition at 285 nm would prevent high loading efficiency into an optical lattice. Therefore, our goal is to produce and cool metastable magnesium, where much lower temperatures are achievable (T_recoil=5 µ K). In this contribution, we present the production of metastable Magnesium by two-color excitation in the singlet system and further decay to the metastable states ³P₂ and ³P₁. The metastable atoms are captured in a magnetic trap and detected on the triplet cooling transition at 383 nm. We are able to load more than 10⁶ atoms in the long-living ³P₂ state into the trap at temperatures below 1 mK. We expect to get much higher atom numbers and lower temperatures in a MOT based on the triplet cooling transition.