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Updated: Nov 10, 2025

Cooling an Optically Trapped Ultracold Fermi Gas by Periodical Driving
Published on: March 30, 2017
Coupling light to a nuclear spin gas with a two-photon linewidth of five millihertz
Or Katz1,2, Roy Shaham1,2, Ofer Firstenberg3
1Department of Physics of Complex Systems, Weizmann Institute of Science, 7610001 Rehovot, Israel.
Abstract:
Nuclear spins of noble gases feature extremely long coherence times but are inaccessible to optical photons. Here, we realize a coherent interface between light and noble-gas spins that is mediated by alkali atoms. We demonstrate the optical excitation of the noble-gas spins and observe the coherent back action on the light in the form of high-contrast two-photon spectra. We report on a record two-photon linewidth of 5 ± 0.7 mHz above room temperature, corresponding to a 1-min coherence time. This experiment provides a demonstration of coherent bidirectional coupling between light and noble-gas spins, rendering their long-lived spin coherence accessible for manipulations in the optical domain.
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