Laser cooling transitions in atomic erbium

We discuss laser cooling opportunities in atomic erbium, identifying five J --> J + 1 transitions from the 4f(12)6s(2) H-3(6) ground state that are accessible to common visible and near-infrared continuous-wave tunable lasers. We present lifetime measurements for the 4f(11)(I-4(o) (15/2)) 5d(5/2)6s(2) (15/2, 5/2)(7)(o) state at 11888 cm(-1) and the 4f(11)(I-4(13/2)o) 5d(3/2)6s(2) (13/ 2, 5/2)(7)o state at 15847 cm(-1), showing values of 20 +/- 4 mu s and 5.6 +/- 1.4 mu s, respectively. We also present a calculated value of 13 +/- 7 s(-1) for the transition rate from the 4f(11)(I-4(o) (15/2)) 5d(3/2)6s(2) (15/2, 3/2)(7) (o) state at 7697 cm(-1) to the ground state, based on scaled Hartree-Fock energy parameters. Laser cooling on these transitions in combination with a strong, fast (5.8 ns) laser cooling transition at 401 nm, suggest new opportunities for narrowband laser cooling of a large-magnetic moment atom, with possible applications in quantum information processing, high-precision atomic clocks, quantum degenerate gases, and deterministic single-atom doping of materials.