Magnetic trapping of atomic chromium

Ground-state ⁵²Cr atoms have been magnetically trapped using buffer-gas loading. The atoms are produced by laser ablation of solid ⁵²Cr, thermalized by collisions with a cryogenically cooled helium buffer gas, and trapped by an anti-Helmholtz quadrupole magnetic field. The atoms are detected by absorption spectroscopy on the a⁷S₃↔z⁷P₃ transition at 427.6 nm. Using this technique, approximately 10¹¹ atoms are loaded into the trap in a single ablation pulse. Loading has been demonstrated at temperatures from 0.3 to 1.4 K.