Hamburg 2009 – scientific programme

Parts | Days | Selection | Search | Downloads | Help

A: Fachverband Atomphysik

A 31: Ultra-Cold Atoms, Ions and BEC IV (with Q)

A 31.4: Talk

Thursday, March 5, 2009, 17:45–18:00, VMP 6 HS-C

Towards Single Impurities in a Bose-Einstein Condensate — •Stefan Palzer, Christoph Zipkes, Carlo Sias, and Michael Köhl — Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge, JJ Thomson Avenue, Cambridge CB3 0HE, United Kingdom

We are currently working on an experimental setup to combine a single trapped Ytterbium ion with a Bose-Einstein Condensate (BEC) of Rubidium (Rb) atoms. Once the ion trap is implemented inside the BEC chamber this experiment will open the path to investigate ultracold atom-ion collisions and to study single impurities in superfluid systems. Moreover, this experiment could provide a new approach to cool trapped ions sympathetically thus prolonging the coherence time for quantum operations. To produce the Bose-Einstein Condensate (BEC) we trap and cool about 10⁹ Rb atoms in a magneto-optical trap (MOT). The atomic cloud then is magnetically transported into the ultrahigh-vacuum (10⁻¹¹ mbar) interaction chamber. We cool the atoms well below the BEC transition temperature by evaporative cooling and create a BEC of about 10⁶ atoms. A single trapped Ytterbium ion will be used as impurity. A linear Paul trap is loaded with one (or more) Yb ion(s) using resonance enhanced isotope-selective photoionionisation. Both systems are currently characterized independently.