Magneto-optical trapping of bosonic and fermionic neon isotopes and their mixtures: isotope shift of the ³P₂ ↔ ³D₃ transition and hyperfine constants of the ³D₃ state of ²¹Ne

Abstract

We have magneto-optically trapped all three stable neon isotopes, including the rare ²¹Ne, and all two-isotope combinations. The atoms are prepared in the metastable ³P₂ state and manipulated via laser interaction on the ³P₂ ↔ ³D₃ transition at 640.2 nm. These cold (T ≈ 1 mK) and environmentally decoupled atom samples present ideal objects for precision measurements and the investigation of interactions between cold and ultracold metastable atoms. In this work, we present accurate measurements of the isotope shift of the ³P₂ ↔ ³D₃ transition and the hyperfine interaction constants of the ³D₃ state of ²¹Ne. The determined isotope shifts are (1625.9 ± 0.15) MHz for ²⁰Ne ↔ ²²Ne, (855.7 ± 1.0) MHz for ²⁰Ne ↔ ²¹Ne, and (770.3 ± 1.0) MHz for ²¹Ne ↔ ²²Ne. The obtained magnetic dipole and electric quadrupole hyperfine interaction constants are A(³D₃) = (−142.4 ± 0.2) MHz and B(³D₃) = (−107.7 ± 1.1) MHz, respectively. All measurements give a reduction of uncertainty by about one order of magnitude over previous measurements.