Trapping radioactive<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mml:mmultiscripts><mml:mi mathvariant="normal">Rb</mml:mi><mml:mprescripts/><mml:none/><mml:mn>82</mml:mn></mml:mmultiscripts></mml:math>in an optical dipole trap and evidence of spontaneous spin polarization

Optical trapping of selected species of radioactive atoms has great potential in precision measurements for testing fundamental physics such as the electric dipole moment, atomic parity nonconservation, and parity-violating $\ensuremath{\beta}$-decay correlation coefficients. We report on the trapping of ${10}^{4}$ radioactive $^{82}\mathrm{Rb}$ atoms $({t}_{1∕2}=75\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}\mathrm{s})$ with a trap lifetime of $\ensuremath{\sim}55\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}\mathrm{s}$ in an optical dipole trap. Transfer efficiency from the magneto-optical trap is $\ensuremath{\sim}14%$. We further report evidence of spontaneous spin polarization of the atoms in optical dipole trap loading. These advancements are an important step toward a new generation of precision nuclear-spin--$\ensuremath{\beta}$-emission direction correlation measurements with polarized $^{82}\mathrm{Rb}$ atoms.