Systematic optimization of laser cooling of dysprosium

Abstract: We report on an apparatus for cooling and trapping of neutral dysprosium. We characterize and optimize the performance of our Zeeman slower and 2D molasses cooling of the atomic beam by means of Doppler spectroscopy on a 136 kHz broad transition at 626 nm. Furthermore, we demonstrate the characterization and optimization procedure for the loading phase of a magneto-optical trap (MOT) by increasing the effective laser linewidth by sideband modulation. After optimization of the MOT compression phase, we cool and trap up to $10^9$ atoms within 3 seconds in the MOT at temperatures of 9 {\mu}K and phase space densities of $1.7 \cdot 10^{-5}$, which constitutes an ideal starting point for loading the atoms into an optical dipole trap and for subsequent forced evaporative cooling.