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Bulletin of the American Physical Society

Toward Ultracold Atomic Hydrogen and Deuterium: An Application of Buffer Gas Cooling

Bonna K. Newman, Cort Johnson, Nathan Brahms, Robert deCarvalho, Chih‐Hao Li, Thomas J. Greytak, Dan Kleppner, John M. Doyle

Published May 19, 2006• 0 citations
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Ultracold hydrogen offers unique possibilities for precision spectroscopy, studies of atomic interactions, and the creation of quantum fluids containing mixtures of hydrogen and deuterium. Current techniques for trapping and cooling hydrogen have produced large condensates with N ∼ 109 atoms, but suffer from a variety of experimental limitations. Among these are the slow evaporative cooling rate due to the small H–H elastic-scattering cross section, the need for a superfluid helium film in the initial thermalization process, a geometry that severely limits detection efficiency, and the inability to trap deuterium. We are constructing a new apparatus based on buffer-gas cooling that will overcome these problems. To accelerate evaporative cooling, the thermalization rate is increased by simultaneously loading lithium and hydrogen into a 4.2 T anti-Helmholtz trap. Lithium accelerates evaporative cooling because the Li–H elastic-scattering cross section is ∼1200 times larger than that of H–H. Hydrogen and lithium will be produced by laser ablation of solid LiH in a 3He buffer gas held at temperatures of ∼350 mK. Because no wall collisions are needed for initial thermalization, ablating a solid sample of LiD should enable studies of deuterium. The apparatus is in the final stages of construction. We report on results of initial tests and discuss the new scientific opportunities made possible by this approach.PACS No.: 32.80.Pj

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We consider the possibility of enhanced cooling of hydrogen atoms by a buffer gas of alkali-metal atoms Na, K, Rb, and Cs. Ultracold elastic collision cross sections for the Na-H and Rb-H purely spin-polarized pairs are found to be 640 and 860 times larger than that for the H-H pair, respectively. From an analysis of the techniques of production of ultracold sodium and rubidium samples, it seems feasible that the critical conditions for Bose-Einstein condensation of hydrogen could be achieved already at the stage of optical cooling of the sodium or rubidium buffer gas.

Physical Review A•Jun 12, 2001•18 citations
Ultracold hydrogen offers unique possibilities for precision spectroscopy, studies of atomic interactions, and the creation of quantum fluids containing mixtures of hydrogen and deuterium. Current techniques for trapping and cooling hydrogen have produced large condensates with N ∼ 109 atoms, but suffer from a variety of experimental limitations. Among these are the slow evaporative cooling rate due to the small H–H elastic-scattering cross section, the need for a superfluid helium film in the initial thermalization process, a geometry that severely limits detection efficiency, and the inability to trap deuterium. We are constructing a new apparatus based on buffer-gas cooling that will overcome these problems. To accelerate evaporative cooling, the thermalization rate is increased by simultaneously loading lithium and hydrogen into a 4.2 T anti-Helmholtz trap. Lithium accelerates evaporative cooling because the Li–H elastic-scattering cross section is ∼1200 times larger than that of H–H. Hydrogen and lithium will be produced by laser ablation of solid LiH in a 3He buffer gas held at temperatures of ∼350 mK. Because no wall collisions are needed for initial thermalization, ablating a solid sample of LiD should enable studies of deuterium. The apparatus is in the final stages of construction. We report on results of initial tests and discuss the new scientific opportunities made possible by this approach.PACS No.: 32.80.Pj
We consider the possibility of enhanced cooling of hydrogen atoms by a buffer gas of alkali-metal atoms Na, K, Rb, and Cs. Ultracold elastic collision cross sections for the Na-H and Rb-H purely spin-polarized pairs are found to be 640 and 860 times larger than that for the H-H pair, respectively. From an analysis of the techniques of production of ultracold sodium and rubidium samples, it seems feasible that the critical conditions for Bose-Einstein condensation of hydrogen could be achieved already at the stage of optical cooling of the sodium or rubidium buffer gas.