title: Laser trapping of 225Ra and 226Ra with repumping by room-temperature blackbody radiation.
abstract: We have demonstrated Zeeman slowing and capture of neutral 225Ra and 226Ra atoms in a magneto-optical trap. The intercombination transition 1S0-->3P1 is the only quasicycling transition in radium and was used for laser-cooling and trapping. Repumping along the 3D1-->1P1 transition extended the lifetime of the trap from milliseconds to seconds. Room-temperature blackbody radiation was demonstrated to provide repumping from the metastable 3P0 level. We measured the isotope shift and hyperfine splittings on the 3D1-->1P1 transition with the laser-cooled atoms, and set a limit on the lifetime of the 3D1 level based on the measured blackbody repumping rate. Laser-cooled and trapped radium is an attractive system for studying fundamental symmetries.
authors.affiliation: Physics Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, Illinois 60439, USA.
authors.forename: J R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Guest
authors.forename: N D
authors.initials: ND
authors.lastname: Scielzo
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Ahmad
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Bailey
authors.forename: J P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Greene
authors.forename: R J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Holt
authors.forename: Z-T
authors.initials: ZT
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.forename: T P
authors.initials: TP
authors.lastname: O'Connor
authors.forename: D H
authors.initials: DH
authors.lastname: Potterveld