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Europhysics Letters (EPL)

Is Bose-Einstein condensation of atomic cesium possible?

David Guéry-Odelin, Johannes Söding, Pierre Desbiolles, Jean Dalibard

Published Oct 1, 1998• 50 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We investigate the dipole relaxation of a cesium atomic gas prepared in its lowest hyperfine level ( F = 3) and confined in a magnetic trap. We measure a rate ∼ 4 × 10 −13 , for a field of 0.1 mT and a temperature 1 μK. This value is 2 orders of magnitude larger than for lighter alkalis. It puts strong constraints on the trapping mechanism which could lead to the Bose-Einstein condensation of cesium.

DOI
10.1209/epl/i1998-00425-9

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We investigate the dipole relaxation of a cesium atomic gas prepared in its lowest hyperfine level ( F = 3) and confined in a magnetic trap. We measure a rate ∼ 4 × 10 −13 , for a field of 0.1 mT and a temperature 1 μK. This value is 2 orders of magnitude larger than for lighter alkalis. It puts strong constraints on the trapping mechanism which could lead to the Bose-Einstein condensation of cesium.
We study conditions necessary for the observation of Bose-Einstein condensation in a magnetically trapped sample of atomic Cs gas. These conditions are associated with the value of the elastic scattering length, the rate of elastic scattering events, and the lifetime for decay of the density due to both magnetic dipole relaxation in two-body collisions, as well as recombination to Cs2{\mathrm{Cs}}_{2}Cs2​ in three-body collisions. We find that, on the basis of these conditions, the prospects for observing Bose-Einstein condensation are favorable for a gas of ground-state Cs atoms in the highest state of the lowest hyperfine manifold. In all calculated elastic and inelastic two-body rates we find a pronounced resonance structure, which can be understood in terms of the interplay between the singlet-triplet interaction and the hyperfine, Zeeman, and magnetic dipole interactions. The experimental observation of these resonances may help to eliminate present uncertainties about interaction potentials.
We study necessary conditions for the observation of Bose–Einstein condensation in a magnetically trapped sample of atomic cesium gas. These constraints are due to interatomic collisions in the sample. We show that the prospects for observing Bose–Einstein condensation are favorable for a gas of ground-state Cs atoms in the highest state of the lowest hyperfine manifold. An interesting aspect of the calculations is that the scattering length for this f = 3, m f = −3 hyperfine state shows pronounced resonance structures as a function of applied magnetic field leading to variations of two orders of magnitude. Most importantly, the scattering length can change sign near the resonances. This suggests a controllable means to change the behavior of the Bose condensate because for negative values a condensate is unstable and other (quantum-)collective effects might be observed. The origin of the resonances is understood from the bound singlet and triplet rovibrational Cs 2 states which are perturbed due to the hyperfine and Zeeman interactions. It is a long standing goal to achieve quantum-collective effects in atomic Fermi- or Bose gases. The prominent reasons are that for a relatively simple system with low density, a microscopic theoretical treatment of the phase transition is still feasible, and to have an experimental testing ground for more complicated quantum-coherent effects such as superfluidity in 4 He and superconductivity in metals. Here, we focus on atomic species which behave as (composite) bosons.
We have measured the rate of inelastic collisions in a cloud of doubly polarized ground-state cesium atoms ( F=mF=4{F\phantom{\rule{0ex}{0ex}}=\phantom{\rule{0ex}{0ex}}m}_{F}\phantom{\rule{0ex}{0ex}}=\phantom{\rule{0ex}{0ex}}4F=mF​=4) confined in a magnetic trap for temperatures TTT between 8 and $70\ensuremath{\mu}\mathrm{K}$. We find a two-body rate coefficient varying as ${T}^{\ensuremath{-}0.63}$. At 8 $\ensuremath{\mu}\mathrm{K}$ it reaches $4\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{\ensuremath{-}12}\phantom{\rule{0ex}{0ex}}{\mathrm{cm}}^{3}{\mathrm{s}}^{\ensuremath{-}1}$ which is 3 orders of magnitude larger than predicted, ruling out a Bose-Einstein condensation of Cs in this internal state.
We have confined magneto-optically trapped cesium atoms to densities of nearly 1012{10}^{12}1012 ${\mathrm{cm}}^{\mathrm{\ensuremath{-}}3}$ by directing most of the population to a hyperfine level which does not interact with the trapping light. This compression represents almost an order of magnitude improvement on the best density we have been able to attain in a conventional magneto-optical trap. In previous work such improvements in density have only been reported for much lighter sodium. We discuss and demonstrate the difficulties in applying the technique to a heavy alkali-metal atom and the limits that are imposed on the best combination of density and temperature that can be produced. We present a simple model that accurately reproduces the density behavior, and justify its basic assumptions by Monte Carlo simulation. \textcopyright{} 1996 The American Physical Society.
The achievement of a Bose-Einstein condensate of cesium in the lowest internal state (F=3, m/sub F/=3) by evaporative cooling in an optical trap is reported. The corresponding scattering length shows a strong dependence on magnetic field, varying from large negative to large positive values in a conveniently accessible magnetic field range due to a unusual combination of broad and narrow Feshbach resonances. The inelastic processes resulting from this complex scattering behavior in thermal ensembles is studied. These measurements have been of crucial importance for identifying a suitable path in phase space towards condensation. In first experiments, the strong dependence of the condensate mean-field energy on the magnetic field is demonstrated. By briefly switching to different scattering lengths just before releasing the sample from the trap, imploding, exploding, and non-interacting 'frozen' condensates are produced. We will employ the tunable interaction in further experiments by looking at molecule formation on Feshbach resonances and exploring condensate dynamics at extreme values of the scattering length.