Trapping and Laser Cooling an Ensemble of Ytterbium-171 Atoms for use in an Atomic Clock

Optical lattice clocks require careful preparation of atomic ensembles in order to ensure homogeneous interactions with the clock laser. We demonstrate loading and laser cooling of an ensemble of ytterbium-171 atoms in a 2D optical dipole trap created by an optical cavity. Our loading method ensures that all atoms are located in the intersection of 2 perpendicular dipole traps as verified through absorption imaging. Raman sideband cooling was used to cool the atomic ensemble from 15.7 uK to 6.3 uK as measured through optical sideband spectroscopy on the 578 nm clock transition. Together, these steps improved the transfer of atoms during a Rabi oscillation from the ground to the clock state from approximately 45 percent excitation fraction to 80 percent excitation fraction. The final atomic ensemble preparation is now sufficient for running an atomic clock.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2025

Author dc:creator

• Velez, Gustavo A.

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Vuletic, Vladan

Statement dc:rights

• In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted
• Copyright retained by author(s)

Licence dc:rights.uri

• https://rightsstatements.org/page/InC-EDU/1.0/

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/163718

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/163718