Towards a lattice based neutral magnesium optical frequency standard

Magnesium is a promising candidate for a high performance neutral atom optical frequency standard. It offers a low sensitivity to frequency shifts of the $^{1}$S$_{0}-^{3}$P$_{0}$ clock transition by room temperature blackbody radiation and has several isotopes of suitable abundance (two bosonic, one fermionic) to realize an optical clock. We report on recent progress towards creating a lattice clock of magnesium. $^{24}$Mg atoms are pre-cooled in two stages. The singlet Magneto Optical Trap (MOT) captures and cools atoms from an atomic beam which are then loaded into a triplet MOT. The triplet MOT has a decay channel to the dark $^{3}$P$_{0}$ state which is used to load atoms into a 1064 nm dipole trap. The cooling stages are on simultaneously and atoms are continuously loaded in the dipole trap. We capture upto 9 10$^{4}$ atoms at a temperature below 100 $\mu $K. We are exploring different avenues for further cooling which will enable reaching the Lamb-Dicke regime in a magic wavelength lattice.