Primary populations of metastable antiprotonic (4)He and (3)He atoms

Initial distributions of metastable antiprotonic (4)He and (3)He atoms over principal (n) and angular momentum (l) quantum numbers have been deduced using laser spectroscopy experiments. The regions n = 37-40 and n = 35-38 in the two atoms account for almost all of the observed fractions [(3.0 +/- 0.1)% and (2.4 +/- 0.1)%] of antiprotons captured into metastable states.     

Degenerate Bose-Fermi mixture of metastable atoms

We report the observation of simultaneous quantum degeneracy in a dilute gaseous Bose-Fermi mixture of metastable atoms. Sympathetic cooling of helium-3 (fermion) by helium-4 (boson), both in the lowest triplet state, allows us to produce ensembles containing more than 10(6) atoms of each isotope at temperatures below 1 microK, and achieve a fermionic degeneracy parameter of T/TF = 0.45. Because of their high internal energy, the detection of individual metastable atoms with subnanosecond time resolution is possible, permitting the study of bosonic and fermionic quantum gases with unprecedented precision. This may lead to metastable helium becoming the mainstay of quantum atom optics.     

Observation of the 1S0-->3P0 clock transition in 27Al+

We report, for the first time, laser spectroscopy of the 1S0-->3P0 clock transition in 27Al+. A single aluminum ion and a single beryllium ion are simultaneously confined in a linear Paul trap, coupled by their mutual Coulomb repulsion. This coupling allows the beryllium ion to sympathetically cool the aluminum ion and also enables transfer of the aluminum's electronic state to the beryllium's hyperfine state, which can be measured with high fidelity. These techniques are applied to measure the clock transition frequency nu=1,121,015,393,207,851(6) Hz. They are also used to measure the lifetime of the metastable clock state tau=20.6+/-1.4 s, the ground state 1S0 g factor gS=-0.000,792,48(14), and the excited state 3P0 g factor gP=-0.001,976,86(21), in units of the Bohr magneton.     

Collisional properties of cold spin-polarized metastable neon atoms

We measure the rates of elastic and inelastic two-body collisions of cold spin-polarized neon atoms in the metastable 3P2 state for 20Ne and 22Ne in a magnetic trap. From particle loss, we determine the loss parameter of inelastic collisions beta=6.5(18) x 10(-12) cm(3) s(-1) for 20Ne and beta=1.2(3) x 10(-11) cm(3) s(-1) for 22Ne. These losses are caused by ionizing (i.e., Penning) collisions and occur less frequently than for unpolarized atoms. This proves the suppression of Penning ionization due to spin polarization. From cross-dimensional relaxation measurements, we obtain elastic scattering lengths of a=-180(40)a(0) for 20Ne and a = +150(+80)(-50)a(0) for 22Ne, where a(0)=0.0529 nm.     

Patterning nonanethiol protected gold films by barium atoms

Self assembled monolayers (SAM) formed from nonanethiols on thin gold films were exposed to a beam of ground state and metastable neutral barium atoms through a nickel mask. The interaction of the Ba atoms with the nonanethiol layer, followed by an etching process, creates well defined structures on the gold film, with features below 100 nm. We compared the interaction of ground state Ba atoms and SAM molecules with respect to metastable Ba atoms, finding that by using metastable atoms the Ba dose per SAM molecule is reduced. The results indicate that nanofabrication in the nanometer range with barium atoms is feasible. PACS 07.77.Gx; 42.82.Cr; 81.16.Ta     

Simultaneous magneto-optical trapping of a boson-fermion mixture of metastable helium atoms

We simultaneously confine fermionic metastable 3He atoms and bosonic metastable 4He atoms in a magneto-optical trap. The trapped clouds, containing up to 1.5 x 10(8) atoms of each isotope, are characterized by measuring ions and metastable helium atoms escaping from the trap. Optical pumping of 3He atoms to a nontrapped hyperfine state is investigated and it is shown that large atom numbers can be confined without additional repumping lasers. Unique possibilities for quantum degeneracy experiments with mixtures of spin-polarized metastable 3He and 4He atoms are indicated.     

Lifetime measurement of the 3P2 metastable state of strontium atoms

We have measured the lifetime of the 5s5p 3P2 metastable state of strontium atoms by magneto-optically trapping the decayed atoms to the ground state, which allowed sensitive detection of the rare decay events. We found that the blackbody radiation-induced decay was the dominant decay channel for the state at T=300 K. The lifetime was determined to be 520(+310)(-140) s in the limit of zero temperature, arguably the longest lifetime ever determined in a laboratory environment.     

Collisions between metastable hydrogen atoms at thermal energies

The complex interaction potentials arising in the approach of two metastable hydrogen 2s atoms are calculated and the cross sections for ionization, excitation transfer, and elastic scattering are predicted. The measured cross section for associative ionization at E = 4.1 meV equals 2x10(-15) cm (2). We calculate a total ionization cross section of 2x10(-13) cm (2), varying as E(-2/3) at higher energies. Thus it appears that dissociative ionization is the major ionization channel. We find also that double excitation transfer into two excited H(2p) atoms is still more probable with the large cross section of 9x10(-12) cm (2) at E = 4.1 meV varying as E(-1/2) at higher energies. The detection of the resulting Lyman alpha photons would provide a diagnostic test of our predictions.     

Penning collisions of laser-cooled metastable helium atoms

We present experimental results on the two-body loss rates in a magneto-optical trap of metastable helium atoms. Absolute rates are measured in a systematic way for several laser detunings ranging from -5 to -30 MHz and at different intensities, by monitoring the decay of the trap fluorescence. The dependence of the two-body loss rate coefficient β on the excited state ( 2³ P ₂) and metastable state ( 2³ S ₁) populations is also investigated. From these results we infer a rather uniform rate constant K _sp = (1±0.4)×10^-7 cm³/s. Received 8 September 2000 and Received in final form 19 December 2000     

Accumulation of chromium metastable atoms into an optical trap

We report the fast accumulation of a large number of metastable ⁵²Cr atoms in a mixed trap, formed by the superposition of a strongly confining optical trap and a quadrupolar magnetic trap. The steady state is reached after about 400 ms, providing a cloud of more than one million metastable atoms at a temperature of about 100 μK, with a peak density of 10¹⁸ atoms m^-3. We have optimized the loading procedure, and measured the light shift of the ⁵D₄ state by analyzing how the trapped atoms respond to a parametric excitation. We compare this result to a theoretical evaluation based on the available spectroscopic data for chromium atoms.     

Activated escape of periodically modulated systems

The rate of noise-induced escape from a metastable state of a periodically modulated overdamped system is found for an arbitrary modulation amplitude A. The instantaneous escape rate displays peaks that vary with the modulation from Gaussian to strongly asymmetric. The prefactor nu in the period-averaged escape rate depends on A nonmonotonically. Near the bifurcation amplitude A(c) it scales as nu proportional, variant(A(c) - A)(zeta). We identify three scaling regimes, with zeta = 1/4, -1, and 1/2.     

Bose-Einstein condensation of metastable helium

We have observed a Bose-Einstein condensate in a dilute gas of 4He in the (3)2S(1) metastable state. We find a critical temperature of (4.7+/-0.5) microK and a typical number of atoms at the threshold of 8 x 10(6). The maximum number of atoms in our condensate is about 5 x 10(5). An approximate value for the scattering length a = (16+/-8) nm is measured. The mean elastic collision rate at threshold is then estimated to be about 2 x 10(4) s(-1), indicating that we are deeply in the hydrodynamic regime. The typical decay time of the condensate is 2 s, which places an upper bound on the rate constants for two-body and three-body inelastic collisions.     

Magnetic-field control of subradiance states of a system of two atoms

A method is proposed for the creation of an entangled metastable (subradiance) excited state in a system of two closely spaced identical atoms. The system of unexcited atoms is first placed in a magnetic field that is directed at a magic angle of \({\alpha _0} = {\text{arccos}}\left( {1/\sqrt 3 } \right) \approx 54.7^\circ \) to the line connecting the atoms and has a transverse gradient. The gradient of the field results in the detuning of frequencies of an optical transition of the atoms. Then, the resonant laser excitation of an atom with a higher transition frequency is performed with the subsequent adiabatic switching-off of the gradient of the magnetic field. It is shown that the excited atomic system in this case transits with overwhelming probability to an entangled subradiance state. Requirements on the spectroscopic parameters of the transitions and on the rate of varying the gradient of the magnetic field necessary for the implementation of this effect are analyzed.     

Effects of discharge current and voltage on the high density of metastable helium atoms

Both hollow-cathode and Penning-type discharges were adopted to excite helium atoms to a metastable state. Experimental data indicate that Penning discharge is more suitable for generating high fractions of metastables in a low-density helium beam for laser-induced fluorescence technique in measuring electric fields at the edge of a plasma. The metastable density increases with increasing helium gas pressure in the range of 1.33×10^{-2}－66.7Pa. The highest metastable density of 3.8×10^{16}m^{-3} is observed at a static gas pressure of 66.7Pa. An approximately linear relationship between the density of metastable helium atoms and the plasma discharge current is observed. Magnetic field plays a very important role in producing a high density of metastable atoms in Penning discharge.     

Collision properties of ultracold 133Cs atoms

We present a theoretical analysis of numerous magnetically tunable Feshbach resonances measured by Chin et al. [preceding Letter, Phys. Rev. Lett. 85, 2717 (2000)] at fields of up to 25 mT. This analysis provides the most accurate characterization of the collisional properties of ground state Cs atoms currently available and clearly shows, in contrast to previous work, that Bose-Einstein condensation of 133Cs cannot be ruled out. The X1Sigma(+)(g) and a(3)Sigma(u) scattering lengths are constrained to (280+/-10)a(0) and (2400+/-100)a(0), respectively ( 1a(0) = 0.052 917 7 nm), and the van der Waals C6 coefficient to 6890+/-35 a.u.(1 a.u. = 0.095 734 5 x10(-24) &Jdot;nm(6)).     

Index of refraction engineering in five-level dressed interacting ground states atoms

We present a five-level atomic system in which the index of refraction of a probe laser can be enhanced or reduced below unity with vanishing absorption in the region between pairs of absorption and gain lines formed by dressing of the atoms with a control laser and rf/microwave fields. By weak incoherent pumping of the population into a single metastable state, one can create several narrow amplifying resonances. At frequencies between these gain lines and additional absorption lines, there exist regions of vanishing absorption but resonantly enhanced index of refraction. In Rb vapors with density N in units of cm(-3), we predict an index of refraction up to n≈√(1+1.2×10(-14)N) for the D1 line, which is more than an order of magnitude larger than other proposals for index of refraction enhancement. Furthermore, the index can be readily reduced below 1 by simply changing the sign of the probe or rf field detunings. This enhancement is robust with respect to homogeneous and inhomogeneous broadening.     

Laser cooling without repumping: a magneto-optical trap for erbium atoms

We report on a novel mechanism that allows for strong laser cooling of atoms that do not have a closed cycling transition. This mechanism is observed in a magneto-optical trap (MOT) for erbium, an atom with a very complex energy level structure with multiple pathways for optical-pumping losses. We observe surprisingly high trap populations of over 10(6) atoms and densities of over 10(11) atoms cm(-3), despite the many potential loss channels. A model based on recycling of metastable and ground state atoms held in the quadrupole magnetic field of the trap explains the high trap population, and agrees well with time-dependent measurements of MOT fluorescence. The demonstration of trapping of a rare-earth atom such as erbium opens a wide range of new possibilities for practical applications and fundamental studies with cold atoms.     

Sodium Bose-Einstein condensates in the F = 2 state in a large-volume optical trap

We have investigated the properties of Bose-Einstein condensates of sodium atoms in the upper hyperfine ground state. Condensates in the high-field seeking [F=2, m(F)=-2> state were created in a large volume optical trap from initially prepared [F=1, m(F)=-1> condensates using a microwave transition at 1.77 GHz. We found condensates in the stretched state [F=2, m(F)=-2> to be stable for several seconds at densities in the range of 10(14) atoms/cm(3). In addition, we studied the clock transition [F=1, m(F)=0> --> [F=2, m(F)=0> in a sodium Bose-Einstein condensate and determined a density-dependent frequency shift of (2.44+/-0.25+/-0.5) x 10(-12) Hz cm(3).     

Lifetime of metastable fluorine atoms

For laser collimation of neutral F atoms, a resonance transition cycle between the metastable and the upper excited states (3s⁴ P _5/2?3p⁴ D ⁰ _7/2) can be used as a two-level closed system. We have determined the lifetime of the metastable state (3s⁴ P _5/2) in F atoms by measuring the decay curve of the fluorescence intensity as a function of distance from the plasma source. Combining the measured velocity of F radicals from the Doppler shift of the fluorescence peak, we have obtained the lifetime of the F metastable state as 3.7±0.5 μs. With this short metastable lifetime of F radicals, the simple Doppler cooling method using spontaneous light force is not practical for laser collimation of F radicals. Use of stimulated light force may be necessary to collimate F radical beams in a short distance. Received: 4 July 2000 / Published online: 13 September 2000     

Stability of small mixed clusters of 4He and 3He atoms

The existence of small helium clusters containing a variable number of 4He and 3He atoms is studied within a variational Monte Carlo calculation employing the Aziz HFD-B(HE) pair interaction. The clusters 4He(2) support one and two 3He atoms; however, the system with three 3He atoms is metastable, and the next bound system requires at least 18 fermions. All clusters obtained by adding 3He atoms to the trimer 4He(3) and the tetramer 4He(4) are bound, but the clusters 4He(3)-3He(3,4,5) and 4He(3,4)-3He(9) are metastable. All remaining clusters with three or more bosons and any number of fermions are stable.