Related papers: Protocol for Optically Pumping AlH$^+$ to a Pure Q…
We report an ultrafast and efficient way to create the maximum coherence between the two lower states in a -like atomic systems, driven by two nonlinearly chirped few-cycle pulses. The phenomenon of coherent population trapping and…
We apply optical pumping to prepare the lithium beam of our atom interferometer in a single hyperfine-Zeeman sublevel: we use two components of the D1-line for pumping the 7Li atoms in a dark state F,mF=+2 (or -2) sublevel. The optical…
Molecular laser cooling and trapping requires addressing all spontaneous decays to excited vibrational states that occur at the $\gtrsim 10^{-4} - 10^{-5}$ level, which is accomplished by driving repumping transitions out of these states.…
Efficient optical pumping is an important tool for state initialization in quantum technologies, such as optical quantum memories. In crystals doped with Kramers rare-earth ions, such as erbium and neodymium, efficient optical pumping is…
We investigate computationally a method for ultrafast preparation of alkali metal atoms in their Rydberg states using a three-dimensional model potential in the single active electron approximation. By optimizing laser pulse shapes that can…
Optical pumping by blackbody radiation is a feature shared by all polar molecules and fundamentally limits the time that these molecules can be kept in a single quantum state in a trap. To demonstrate and quantify this, we have monitored…
We report on the direct conversion of laser-cooled 41K and 87Rb atoms into ultracold 41K87Rb molecules in the rovibrational ground state via photoassociation followed by stimulated Raman adiabatic passage. High-resolution spectroscopy based…
A new method for obtaining of inverse population between quadrupole sublevels of the ground state $5/2^+(0.0)$ and the isomeric state $3/2^+(7.6$ eV) of the $^{229}$Th nucleus in a dielectric crystal with a large band gap by means of…
We demonstrate rotational cooling of the silicon monoxide cation via optical pumping by a spectrally filtered broadband laser. Compared with diatomic hydrides, SiO\+ is more challenging to cool because of its smaller rotational interval.…
Preparation of an atomic ensemble in a particular Zeeman state is a critical step of many protocols for implementing quantum sensors and quantum memories. These devices can also benefit from optical fibre integration. In this work we…
Many ion species commonly used for laser-cooled ion trapping studies have a low-lying metastable 2D3/2 state that can become populated due to spontaneous emission from the 2P1/2 excited state. This requires a repumper laser to maintain the…
We generate an atomic beam of titanium (Ti) using a "Ti-ball" Ti-sublimation pump, which is a common getter pump used in ultrahigh vacuum (UHV) systems. We show that the sublimated atomic beam can be optically pumped into the metastable…
We report on efficient rovibrational state-selective loading of single H$_2^+$ molecular ions into a cryogenic linear Paul trap using (2+1) resonance-enhanced multi-photon ionization (REMPI). The H$_2^+$ ions are created by resonant…
Advanced techniques for manipulation of internal states, standard in atomic physics, are demonstrated for a charged molecular species for the first time. We address individual hyperfine states of ro-vibrational levels of a diatomic ion by…
The majority of molecules proposed for laser cooling and trapping experiments have $\Sigma$-type ground states. Specifically, $^2\Sigma$ states have cycling transitions analogous to D1-lines in alkali-metal atoms while $^1\Sigma$ states…
The radiative excitation of the 8.3 eV isomeric state of thorium-229 is an outstanding challenge due to the lack of tunable far-ultraviolet (F-UV) sources. In this work, we propose an efficient two-photon pumping scheme for thorium-229…
Controlling the internal degrees of freedom is a key challenge for applications of cold and ultracold molecules. Here, we demonstrate rotational-state cooling of trapped methyl fluoride molecules (CH3F) by optically pumping the population…
We describe an atom trapping mechanism based upon differential optical pumping between metastable hyperfine states by partially-displaced laser beams in the absence of a magnetic field. With realistic laser powers, trap spring constants…
Ground state cooling and coherent manipulation of ions in an rf-(Paul) trap is the prerequisite for quantum information experiments with trapped ions. With resolved sideband cooling on the optical S1/2 - D5/2 quadrupole transition we have…
We propose a scheme of optical pumping by which a system of atoms coupled to harmonic oscillators is driven to an entangled steady state through the atomic spontaneous emission. It is shown that the optical pumping can be tailored so that…