Researchers at NIST and the University of Maryland have developed a new method for trapping and cooling highly magnetic erbium atoms using a modified magneto-optical trap (MOT). The technique, which involves shifting laser frequencies towards the blue end of the spectrum and using weak resonances, allows erbium atoms to be cooled to within two millionths of a degree of absolute zero – significantly colder than the one ten-thousandth of a degree achieved with conventional MOTs.
This breakthrough opens up new possibilities for using erbium and similar lanthanide elements in applications such as nanoscale magnetic field detectors, atomic resolution metrology, optical computing systems, and quantum computing. The research team’s findings were published in Physical Review Letters.
Keywords: erbium, magneto-optical trap, laser cooling, absolute zero, nanoscale force sensors
