Hamburg 2009 – scientific programme

Parts | Days | Selection | Search | Downloads | Help

Q: Fachverband Quantenoptik und Photonik

Q 56: Poster IV

Q 56.8: Poster

Thursday, March 5, 2009, 16:30–19:00, VMP 9 Poster

Fermionic potassium atoms in a CO₂-laser optical dipole trap — •Alexander Gatto, Christian Bolkart, and Martin Weitz — Insitut für Angewandte Physik, Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn, Wegelerstraße 8, 53115 Bonn

We will report progress in an experiment directed towards realisation of a fermionic potassium Fermi gas with all-optical techniques. The quantum gas will be used for studies of a supersolid phase transition with fermionic atoms in an optical lattice. In our experiment a cold atomic ⁴⁰K beam emitted from a two-dimensional MOT is used to load a dark magneto optic trap. The density of the trapped atoms is increased by switching to a compressed MOT where we ramp our magnetic field to higher values and reduce the intensity of our repumping laser. We subsequently transfer 10⁶ fermionic potassium atoms into the quasistatic dipole trapping potential realized with a focused CO₂-laser beam with wavelength near 10.6 µ m. In the future, we plan to cool the atoms evaporatively to quantum degeneracy.