Stuttgart 2012 – scientific programme

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Q: Fachverband Quantenoptik und Photonik

Q 34: Poster 1

Q 34.22: Poster

Tuesday, March 13, 2012, 16:30–19:00, Poster.I+II

Strategy for the optical preperation of an ultracold Bose-Fermi mixture of Li and Cs — •Robert Heck, Marc Repp, Rico Pires, Juris Ulmanis, Stefan Schmidt, Romain Müller, and Matthias Weidemüller — Physikalisches Institut, Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany

The mixture of ultracold ¹³³Cs and ⁶Li atoms and molecules close to quantum degeneracy permits to study many different aspects of few and many body physics by precise tuning and characterization of interactions between the different species via magnetic fields (Feshbach resonances). Additionally, Li and Cs form the system with the highest mass imbalance between all alkali combinations leading to the appearance of universal Efimov states [1,2] with the smallest scaling factor of 4.88 for the ¹³³Cs₂⁶Li trimer [3] (22.7 in case of homonuclear mixtures).

In this poster we present the experimental approach and the current status of our experimental apparatus for cooling Li and Cs atoms to phase-space densities close to quantum degeneracy. The atoms emitted from an oven are decelerated by a double-species Zeeman slower and loaded into MOTs. The Cs atoms are further cooled via Raman sideband cooling. Forced evaporative cooling in two seperated dipole traps will lead to a BEC of Cs and a quantum degenerate Fermi gas of Li.

[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)