Cooling Lithium in a Zeeman Slower for Neutrino Mass Experiments

The goal of future neutrino mass experiments is to make a direct measurement of the mass of the neutrino via tritium decay in cyclotron radiation emission spectroscopy. As large stockpiles of radioactive gas are difficult to handle for beamline experiment, an alternative trappable light atomic species like Lithium is beneficial to prototype and characterize the anticipated atomic beamline. Therefore, a critical part of the Project 8 R&D program is to build a Zeeman slower. The atoms are cooled using a counter-propagating laser, and a slowly decreasing magnetic field along the length of the slower, induced by a set of copper coils. The resonant frequency shift from the doppler effect in the fast, hot lithium atoms is matched by the zeeman effect induced by the coils. The result will be a slow lithium atomic beamline at 5-10K. A Zeeman slower has been constructed for this purpose, overcoming the challenges in coil design, vacuum systems, and water cooling.