A dense magneto optical trap of cadmium atoms

We present a dense magneto-optical trap (MOT) of cadmium atoms, rapidly loaded from a buffer gas cooled beam. We use the ¹P₁ ← ¹S₀ transition near 229 nm to trap all eight stable bosonic and fermionic isotopes by using a Zeeman slower. We characterize the loading rate, the trap frequency and measure the density in absorption. The lifetime of the MOT is limited by ionization but can be enhanced by detuning the laser in between shots to allow for accumulation. Cadmium is an excellent test species for our MOT apparatus as it shares many properties with the more complex case of aluminum monofluoride (AlF) molecules, which we plan to capture with this setup.