Continuous loading and transport of strontium atoms in a ring cavity*

We will present continuous loading of cold $^{88}$Sr atoms into a ring cavity in the strong collective atom-cavity coupling regime. Our approach is to guide atoms through a series of spatially separated laser cooling and deceleration stages before using a 3D molasses to capture them into a magic-wavelength conveyor belt-style moving optical lattice supported by the ring cavity. Our continuous, high flux apparatus is an excellent starting point for a continuous wave superradiant laser [1], dead-time free atom interferometers [2], and high-precision atomic clocks [3].

[1] D. Meiser, Jun Ye, D. R. Carlson, M. J. Holland, Phys. Rev. Lett. 102, 163601 (2009).

[2] I. Dutta, D. Savoie, B. Fang, et al. Phys. Rev. Lett. 116, 183003 (2016).

[3] M. Schioppo, R. Brown, W. McGrew, et al. Nature Photon 11, 48–52 (2017).