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  • Letter
  • Open Access

Coherent three-photon excitation of the strontium clock transition

Junyu He (何君鈺)1, Benjamin Pasquiou1,2,3,4, Rodrigo González Escudero1, Sheng Zhou (周晟)1, Mateusz Borkowski1, and Florian Schreck1,2,*

  • *Contact author: threePhotonTransfer@strontiumBEC.com

Phys. Rev. Research 7, L012050 – Published 4 March, 2025

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevResearch.7.L012050

Abstract

We demonstrate coherent three-photon excitation of the strontium clock transition with a contrast of 51(12)% using a Bose-Einstein condensate. We follow it up with a demonstration of three-photon STIRAP-like transfer, overcoming the typical limitations of this technique to odd-level numbers. We also measure the two-body loss coefficient of Sr84 clock-state atoms. Our work constitutes an essential step towards outcoupling a continuous atom laser beam and provides a fast excitation mechanism for quantum simulation using bosonic alkaline-earth-like atoms.

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