Cooling and Trapping 88Sr Atoms with 461nm Laser

We report the experimental realization of a 88Sr magneto-optical trap (MOT) operating at the wavelength of 461nm. The MOT is loaded via a 32cm long spin-flip type Zeeman slower which enhances the MOT population by a factor of 22. The total laser power available in our experiment is about 300mW. We have trapped 1.6×108 88Sr atoms with a 679nm and 707nm repumping laser. The two repumping lasers enhance the trap population and trap lifetime by factors of 11 and 7, respectively. The 88Sr cloud has a temperature of about 2.3mK, measured by recording the time evolution of the absorption signal.