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APS » Journals » Phys. Rev. Lett. » Volume 92 » Issue 15
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Phys. Rev. Lett. 92, 153002 (2004) [4 pages]

Counting Individual 41Ca Atoms with a Magneto-Optical Trap

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I. D. Moore*, K. Bailey, J. Greene, Z.-T. Lu†, P. Müller, and T. P. O’Connor
Physics Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, Illinois 60439, USA

Ch. Geppert and K. D. A. Wendt‡
Institut für Physik, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz, D-55099 Mainz, Germany

L. Young
Chemistry Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, Illinois 60439, USA

Received 10 July 2003; published 14 April 2004

Atom trap trace analysis, a novel method based upon laser trapping and cooling, is used to count individual atoms of 41Ca present in biomedical samples with isotopic abundance levels between 10-8 and 10-10. The method is calibrated against resonance ionization mass spectrometry, demonstrating good agreement between the two methods. The present system has a counting efficiency of 2×10-7. Within 1 h of observation time, its 3-σ detection limit on the isotopic abundance of 41Ca reaches 4.5×10-10.

© 2004 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.92.153002
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevLett.92.153002
PACS:
32.80.Pj, 87.80.–y, 89.20.–a, 93.85.+q

*Current address: Department of Physics, P.O. Box 35 (YFL), FIN-40014 University of Jyväskylä, Finland.

Email address: iain.moore@phys.jyu.fi

†To whom correspondence should be addressed.

Email address: lu@anl.gov

‡Email address: klaus.wendt@uni-mainz.de

 
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