← Back to papers

Two-dimensional shelving spectroscopy of ultraviolet ground state transitions in dysprosium

Kevin S. H. Ng, Paul Uerlings, Fiona Hellstern, Jens Hertkorn, Luis Weiß, Stephan Welte, Tilman Pfau, Ralf Klemt·April 8, 2026
Atomic Physicscond-mat.quant-gasQuantum Physics

AI Breakdown

Get a structured breakdown of this paper — what it's about, the core idea, and key takeaways for the field.

Abstract

The open inner-shell electronic structure of lanthanides with large magnetic moments gives rise to a rich spectrum of transitions available for laser cooling, trapping, and coherent control. Despite this, the large number of ultraviolet (UV) transitions below 400nm have so far been rarely utilized in dipolar atom experiments. Here, we investigate multiple UV ground state transitions in dysprosium. Several of these UV excited states have the largest decay strengths to the ultralong-lived, low-lying first excited state which are comparable to the most commonly used strongest transitions found in dipolar atoms. Using two-dimensional shelving spectroscopy which improves detection sensitivity and provides a straightforward way to determine the hyperfine-isotope structure and excited state total angular momentum $J$, we measure isotope shifts, hyperfine coefficients, and create King plots to determine their electronic nature. Such knowledge of these UV transitions which analogously exist in other magnetic atoms is important for optically populating the first excited state and can be used towards creating an optical clock, high resolution imaging in quantum gas microscopy, and probing lanthanide nuclei with enhanced Schiff moments in search of physics beyond the standard model.

Related Research