Laser cooling of indium

To date nearly all quantum degenerate gas experiments have been based on alkali, alkaline earth, or lanthanide atoms. Meanwhile, most of the periodic table remains unexplored in the quantum degenerate regime. One such unexplored class of atoms are the triels (periodic table Main Group III). Like alkaline earths, some triel atoms have narrow-linewidth electronic transitions at wavelengths amenable to stable laser technology; however, unlike alkaline earths, triels also have alkali-like ground state magnetic Feshbach resonances. Therefore, triel atoms could be probed with optical clock resolution while offering the many-body control of alkali atoms.

In this talk we report the first Zeeman slower of a triel atom, namely indium. Using a cycling transition for cooling that driven from a metastable state, we observe a bright slowed beam at 70 m/s. We also present our progress towards magneto-optical trapping of indium.