Velocity control of an Yb beam by a frequency-doubled mode-locked laser

Abstract

An ytterbium atomic beam has been decelerated with the use of a multimode light beam based on a frequency-doubled mode-locked Ti:sapphire laser. Compression of the atomic velocity distribution was achieved by the addition of a copropagating single-mode light beam. The contribution of each isotope to the observed compressed peaks of the velocity distribution is explained.