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  • Letter
  • Open Access

Sub-recoil transverse momentum width in a cold ytterbium atomic beam

Toshiyuki Hosoya1,2, Tomoya Sato3, Ryotaro Inoue3,*, and Mikio Kozuma2,3,†

  • *Present address: Nanofiber Quantum Technologies, Inc.
  • †Contact author: kozuma@qnav.iir.isct.ac.jp
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Phys. Rev. Research 7, L042013 – Published 10 October, 2025

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/4rkj-z4qp

Abstract

We demonstrate the generation of a slow ytterbium atomic beam with a transverse momentum width of 0.44(6) times the photon recoil associated with Bragg diffraction, and a flux of 6.7(9)×106 atoms/s. This is achieved by applying momentum filtering through a long-lived metastable state to atoms prepared in a slow beam via two-dimensional transverse laser cooling. The resulting narrow momentum distribution enables efficient quasi-Bragg diffraction, which we exploit to realize a Bragg interferometer. These results mark a significant step toward continuous, high-precision, and magnetically insensitive angular rate measurements using cold alkaline-earth(-like) atomic beams.

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Phys. Rev. Research 7, L042013– Published 10 October, 2025
  • Received 13 May 2025
  • Accepted 22 September 2025
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Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI.

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