Doppler cooling of calcium ions using a dipole-forbidden transition

Doppler cooling of calcium ions has been experimentally demonstrated using the S-1/2 -> D-5/2 dipole-forbidden transition. Scattering forces and fluorescence levels a factor of 5 smaller than for the usual Doppler cooling on the dipole-allowed S-1/2 -> P-1/2 transition have been achieved. Since the light scattered from the ions can be monitored at (violet) wavelengths that are very different from the excitation wavelengths, single ions can be detected with an essentially zero background level. This, as well as other features of the cooling scheme, can be extremely valuable for ion-trap-based quantum-information processing.