Düsseldorf 2007 – scientific programme

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Q: Fachverband Quantenoptik und Photonik

Q 62: Poster Ultrakalte Atome

Q 62.6: Poster

Thursday, March 22, 2007, 16:30–18:30, Poster C

Calcium atoms in a dipole trap — •Chih-Yun Yang, Purbasha Halder, Oliver Appel, Dirk Hansen, and Andreas Hemmerich — Institut für Laserphysik, Universität Hamburg, Luruper Chaussee 149, 22761 Hamburg

Alkaline-earth metal atoms are interesting candidates for laser cooling due to their strong principal fluorescence lines. At the same time, narrow intercombination lines can be exploited for refined cooling schemes or in time metrology. Recently, we demonstrated magnetic trapping of metastable Ca atoms in a miniaturized Ioffe trap. However, reaching the quantum degenerate regime by evaporative cooling in this trap was made impossible by the unvavorable ratio between inelastic and elastic collisions [1].

Currently, efforts are under way to prepare an ensemble of cold ground state Ca atoms in an optical dipole trap at 532nm. Here, we present latest developments and the status of the experiment.

[1] Dirk Hansen, Andreas Hemmerich, Phys. Rev. Lett. 96, 073003