A Bose-Einstein Condensate of Strongly magnetic atoms

CFM Seminars

Speaker

Francesca Ferlaino, Inst. fur Experimentalphysik, Univ. Innsbruck, Austria

When

2013/02/01
13:00

Place

Donostia International Physics Center, Paseo Manuel de Lardizabal 4, Donostia-San Sebastián

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A Bose-Einstein Condensate of Strongly magnetic atoms Francesca Ferlaino Institut für Experimentalphysik, University of Innsbruck, Austria We report on the production of the first Bose-Einstein condensate of erbium [1]. Erbium is a very special multi-valence-electron atom, belonging to the lanthanide series. It possesses a strongly magnetic d ipolar character, a rich energy level diagram, and various isotopes, among which one has a fermionic nature. Despite the complex atomic properties of such unconventional species, we find a surprisingly simple and efficient approach to reach quantum degeneracy by means of laser cooling on a narrow-line transition and standard evaporative cooling techniques. We observe favorable scattering properties of 168Er, resulting in remarkably high evaporation efficiency and in a large number of Feshbach resonances at very low magnetic field values (around 1 G). All these desirable properties make Er a dream system for ultracold quantum gas experiments. [1] K. Aikawa, A. Frisch, M. Mark, S. Baier, A. Rietzler, R. Grimm, and F. Ferlaino, Bose-Einstein Condensation of Erbium, Phys. Rev. Lett. 108, 210401 (2012).