Heidelberg 2015 – scientific programme
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Q: Fachverband Quantenoptik und Photonik
Q 62: Poster: Quantum Optics and Photonics III
Q 62.16: Poster
Thursday, March 26, 2015, 17:00–19:00, C/Foyer
Ultracold erbium atoms in a quasistatic optical dipole trap — •Daniel Babik, Henning Brammer, Jens Ulitzsch, and Martin Weitz — Institut für Angewandte Physik, Wegelerstraße 8, 53115 Bonn
The erbium atom has a 4f12 6s2 3H6 electronic ground state with a large angular momentum of L = 5. On the other hand alkali atoms, which are commonly used in optical lattice experiments, have a spherical symmetric (L=0) S-ground state configuration, for which in far detuned laser fields with detuning above the upper state fine structure splitting the trapping potential is determined by the scalar electronic polarizability. For an erbium atomic quantum gas with its L > 0 electronic ground state, the trapping potential also for far detuned dissipation-less trapping laser fields becomes dependent on the internal atomic state (i.e. spin).
We have loaded erbium atoms from a magneto-optical trap driven by the blue 400.91 nm transition into a quasistatic optical dipole trap generated by a focused CO2-laser beam with a wavelength near 10,6 µm. Evaporative cooling of erbium atoms in such a trap was demonstrated. 12000 erbium atoms where cooled down to approximately 2 µK temperature in the quasistatic dipole trap. The achieved atomic phase-space density presently reaches 1.8 × 10−4. Recent experimental progress will be discussed.