Study on the clock-transition spectrum of cold 171Yb ytterbium atoms

• Published in: Laser physics letters Vol. 12; no. 2
• Main Authors: Zhang, Xiaohang, Zhou, Min, Chen, Ning, Gao, Qi, Han, Chengyin, Yao, Yuan, Xu, Peng, Li, Shangyan, Xu, Yilin, Jiang, Yanyi, Bi, Zhiyi, Ma, Longsheng, Xu, Xinye
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: IOP Publishing 05.01.2015
• Subjects: clock-transition spectrum; optical lattices; spin polarization; Zeeman shifts
• ISSN: 1612-2011; 1612-202X
• DOI: 10.1088/1612-2011/12/2/025501

We present a detailed study of the clock-transition spectrum of cold 171Yb ytterbium atoms in a 1D optical lattice. A typical clock-transition spectrum with a carrier-sideband structure is observed. After minimizing the power broadening effect and compensating the stray magnetic field, the carrier linewidth is narrowed to about 16 Hz for a 60 ms interrogation time. By increasing the interrogation time to 150 ms, the linewidth is further reduced to 6.8 Hz. By applying the bias magnetic field parallel to the clock-laser polarization, a two-peak spectrum corresponding to two π transitions is obtained. Finally, spin polarization of atoms to a single desired Zeeman sublevel of the ground state is also demonstrated. The presented results will be very useful for developing better optical lattice clocks.