Stuttgart 2012 – scientific programme

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Q: Fachverband Quantenoptik und Photonik

Q 17: Kalte Atome: Fallen und Kühlung

Q 17.1: Talk

Monday, March 12, 2012, 16:30–16:45, V7.02

Towards a two-species quantum degenerate gas of ⁶Li and ¹³³Cs atoms and molecules — •Marc Repp, Rico Pires, Juris Ulmanis, Robert Heck, Romain Müller, Stefan Schmidt, and Matthias Weidemüller — Physikalisches Institut, Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg

The ability to precisely control the interactions of a Bose-Fermi mixture of ¹³³Cs and ⁶Li at phase-space densities close to quantum degeneracy allows one to study many different aspects of few- and many- body physics in the most extreme alkali atom combination. The extremely large mass-difference of Li and Cs results in the smallest scaling factor of all alkali combinations for the appearance of universal Efimov states [1,2] of 4.88 for ¹³³Cs₂⁶Li [3] (cf. to 22.7 for homo-nuclear mixtures). The talk will present the design and the current status of our experimental apparatus for achieving higher phase-space densities. The scheme of a double-species Zeeman slower that allows to subsequently decelerate Cs and Li atoms from an atomic oven to the capture velocities of the MOTs will be shown. After further cooling the Cs atoms via Raman side band cooling, both species are transferred into dipole traps where forced evaporative cooling will bring the samples to quantum degeneracy. The possibility of tuning interaction strengths via magnetic fields would enable the study of interspecies Efimov states of Li and Cs.

[1] V. Efimov, Sov. J. Nuc. Phys. 12, 589 (1971)

[2] E. Braaten & H.-W. Hammer, Annals of Physics 322, 120 (2007)

[3] J. P. D’Incao & B. D. Esry, Phys. Rev. A 73, 030703 (2006)