Raman sideband cooling of two-valence-electron fermionic atoms

We propose a method for laser cooling two-valence-electron fermionic atoms. Our protocol employs resolved-sideband cooling on the stimulated Raman transition between the two magnetic sublevels (m = F and m = F - 1) of the ground state with total angular momentum F. The optical pumping from m = F - 1 to ¹P₁ are used to decouple atoms in the m = F - 1 state. We calculate the Raman coupling generated by an engineered optical lattice. The result shows that it is possible to laser cool the two-valence-electron fermionic atoms to the ground state. The atoms in the ground state provide a new system for quantum optics.