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arXiv:1506.08705 · Physical Review A

Degenerate Bose-Fermi mixtures of rubidium and ytterbium

Varun Vaidya, Jiraphat Tiamsuphat, S. L. Rolston, J. V. Porto

Published Oct 5, 2015• 56 citations
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Abstract

An admixture of ${}^{87}$Rb and ${}^{171}$Yb atoms is prepared and cooled down to quantum degeneracy in a hybrid optical dipole trap independently tunable for both atomic species, which makes experimentalists ready to explore intriguing quantum phenomena such as the behavior of polarons on a lattice with alkali-metal--alkaline-earth-metal mixtures.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.92.043604

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Degenerate mixtures of rubidium and ytterbium for engineering open quantum systems

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The study of low density, ultracold atomic Fermi gases is a promising avenue to understand fermion superfluidity from first principles. One technique currently used to bring Fermi gases in the degenerate regime is sympathetic cooling through a reservoir made of an ultracold Bose gas. We discuss a proposal for trapping and cooling of two-species Fermi-Bose mixtures into optical dipole traps made from combinations of laser beams having two different wavelengths. In these bichromatic traps it is possible, by a proper choice of the relative laser powers, to selectively trap the two species in such a way that fermions experience a stronger confinement than bosons. As a consequence, a deep Fermi degeneracy can be reached having at the same time a softer degenerate regime for the Bose gas. This leads to an increase in the sympathetic cooling efficiency and allows for higher precision thermometry of the Fermi - Bose mixture.

•Jan 1, 2004•10 citations
An admixture of 87{}^{87}87Rb and 171{}^{171}171Yb atoms is prepared and cooled down to quantum degeneracy in a hybrid optical dipole trap independently tunable for both atomic species, which makes experimentalists ready to explore intriguing quantum phenomena such as the behavior of polarons on a lattice with alkali-metal--alkaline-earth-metal mixtures.
We have produced a quantum degenerate mixture of fermionic alkali-metal 6{}^{6}6Li and bosonic spin-singlet 174{}^{174}174Yb gases. This was achieved using sympathetic cooling of lithium atoms by evaporatively cooled ytterbium atoms in a far-off-resonant optical dipole trap. We observe the coexistence of Bose-condensed ($T/{T}_{\mathrm{c}}\ensuremath{\simeq}0.8$) 174{}^{174}174Yb with $2.3\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{4}$ atoms and Fermi degenerate ($T/{T}_{\mathrm{F}}\ensuremath{\simeq}0.3$) 6{}^{6}6Li with $1.2\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{4}$ atoms. Quasipure Bose-Einstein condensates of up to $3\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{4}$ 174{}^{174}174Yb atoms can be produced in single-species experiments. Our results mark a significant step toward studies of few- and many-body physics with mixtures of alkali-metal and alkaline-earth-metal-like atoms, and for the production of paramagnetic polar molecules in the quantum regime. Our methods also establish a convenient scheme for producing quantum degenerate ytterbium atoms in a 1064 nm optical dipole trap.
The authors report the production of a quantum degenerate mixture of alkali-metal 6{}^{6}6Li and alkaline-earth-metal 84{}^{84}84Sr atoms in a far-off-resonant optical dipole trap. The results could pave the way for studying lithium-strontium polar molecules.
We realize simultaneous quantum degeneracy in mixtures consisting of the alkali and alkaline-earth-like atoms Li and Yb. This is accomplished within an optical trap by sympathetic cooling of the fermionic isotope 6Li^{6}\mathrm{Li}6Li with evaporatively cooled bosonic 174Yb^{174}\mathrm{Yb}174Yb and, separately, fermionic 173Yb^{173}\mathrm{Yb}173Yb. Using cross-thermalization studies, we also measure the elastic sss-wave scattering lengths of both Li-Yb combinations, $|{a}_{^{6}\mathrm{Li}\ensuremath{-}^{174}\mathrm{Yb}}|=1.0\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.2\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{nm}$ and $|{a}_{^{6}\mathrm{Li}\ensuremath{-}^{173}\mathrm{Yb}}|=0.9\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.2\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{nm}$. The equality of these lengths is found to be consistent with mass-scaling analysis. The quantum degenerate mixtures of Li and Yb, as realized here, can be the basis for creation of ultracold molecules with electron spin degrees of freedom, studies of novel Efimov trimers, and impurity probes of superfluid systems.
Exquisite experimental control of quantum systems has led to sharp growth of basic quantum research in recent years. Controlling dissipation has been crucial in producing ultracold, trapped atomic samples. Recent theoretical work has suggested dissipation can be a useful tool for quantum state preparation. Controlling not only how a system interacts with a reservoir, but the ability to engineer the reservoir itself would be a powerful platform for open quantum system research. Toward this end, we have constructed an apparatus to study ultracold mixtures of rubidium (Rb) and ytterbium (Yb). We have developed a Rb-blind optical lattice at 423.018(7) nm, which will enable us to immerse a lattice of Yb atoms (the system) into a Rb BEC (superfluid reservoir). We have produced Bose-Einstein condensates of 170-Yb and 174-Yb, two of the five bosonic isotopes of Yb, which also has two fermionic isotopes. Flexible optical trapping of Rb and Yb was achieved with a two-color dipole trap of 532 and 1064 nm, and we observed thermalization in ultracold mixtures of Rb and Yb. Using the Rb-blind optical lattice, we measured very small light shifts of 87-Rb BECs near the light shift zero-wavelengths adjacent the 6p electronic states, through a coherent series of lattice pulses. The positions of the zero-wavelengths are sensitive to the electric dipole matrix elements between the 5s and 6p states, and we made the first experimental measurement of their strength. By measuring a light shift, we were not sensitive to excited state branching ratios, and we achieved a precision better than 0.3%.
In the last two decades, experimental progress in controlling cold atoms and ions now allows us to manipulate fragile quantum systems with an unprecedented degree of precision. This has been made possible by the ability to isolate small ensembles of atoms and ions from noisy environments, creating truly closed quantum systems which decouple from dissipative channels. However in recent years, several proposals have considered the possibility of harnessing dissipation in open systems, not only to cool degenerate gases to currently unattainable temperatures, but also to engineer a variety of interesting many-body states. This thesis will describe progress made towards building a degenerate gas apparatus that will soon be capable of realizing these proposals. An ultracold gas of ytterbium atoms, trapped by a species-selective lattice will be immersed into a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) of rubidium atoms which will act as a bath. Here we describe the challenges encountered in making a degenerate mixture of rubidium and ytterbium atoms and present two experiments performed on the path to creating a controllable open quantum system. The first experiment will describe the measurement of a tune-out wavelength where the light shift of $\Rb{87}$ vanishes. This wavelength was used to create a species-selective trap for ytterbium atoms. Furthermore, the measurement of this wavelength allowed us to extract the dipole matrix element of the 5s→6p5s \rightarrow 6p5s→6p transition in $\Rb{87}$ with an extraordinary degree of precision. Our method to extract matrix elements has found use in atomic clocks where precise knowledge of transition strengths is necessary to account for minute blackbody radiation shifts. The second experiment will present the first realization of a degenerate Bose-Fermi mixture of rubidium and ytterbium atoms. Using a three-color optical dipole trap (ODT), we were able to create a highly-tunable, species-selective potential for rubidium and ytterbium atoms which allowed us to use $\Rb{87}$ to sympathetically cool $\Yb{171}$ to degeneracy with minimal loss. This mixture is the first milestone creating the lattice-bath system and will soon be used to implement novel cooling schemes and explore the rich physics of dissipation.
The study of low density, ultracold atomic Fermi gases is a promising avenue to understand fermion superfluidity from first principles. One technique currently used to bring Fermi gases in the degenerate regime is sympathetic cooling through a reservoir made of an ultracold Bose gas. We discuss a proposal for trapping and cooling of two-species Fermi-Bose mixtures into optical dipole traps made from combinations of laser beams having two different wavelengths. In these bichromatic traps it is possible, by a proper choice of the relative laser powers, to selectively trap the two species in such a way that fermions experience a stronger confinement than bosons. As a consequence, a deep Fermi degeneracy can be reached having at the same time a softer degenerate regime for the Bose gas. This leads to an increase in the sympathetic cooling efficiency and allows for higher precision thermometry of the Fermi - Bose mixture.