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Journal of the Korean Physical Society

Experimental apparatus for generating quantum degenerate gases of ytterbium atoms

Min‐Seok Kim, Moosong Lee, Jeong Ho Han, Yong-il Shin

Published Nov 1, 2015• 1 citation
Publisher

Abstract

We describe our experimental apparatus for generating quantum degenerate gases of bosonic 174Yb and fermionic 173Yb atoms. We use a Zeeman slower to generate a slow atomic beam and collect atoms in a magneto-optical trap formed by 556-nm laser beams without frequency modulations. Laser-cooled ytterbium atoms are transferred to a crossed optical dipole trap and evaporatively cooled to quantum degeneracy. Our system generates a Bose-Einstein condensate containing over 6 × 104 174Yb atoms or a degenerate Fermi gas of about 7 × 104 173Yb atoms at T/T F =0.8(1), where T F is the Fermi temperature of the gas. We highlight the high performance of the Zeeman slower and the home-made frequency-doubling systems for 399-nm and 556-nm lasers.

DOI
10.3938/jkps.67.1719

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We describe our experimental apparatus for generating quantum degenerate gases of bosonic 174Yb and fermionic 173Yb atoms. We use a Zeeman slower to generate a slow atomic beam and collect atoms in a magneto-optical trap formed by 556-nm laser beams without frequency modulations. Laser-cooled ytterbium atoms are transferred to a crossed optical dipole trap and evaporatively cooled to quantum degeneracy. Our system generates a Bose-Einstein condensate containing over 6 × 104 174Yb atoms or a degenerate Fermi gas of about 7 × 104 173Yb atoms at T/T F =0.8(1), where T F is the Fermi temperature of the gas. We highlight the high performance of the Zeeman slower and the home-made frequency-doubling systems for 399-nm and 556-nm lasers.
We report on the first experimental setup based on a 2D-/3D-magneto-optical trap (MOT) scheme to create both Bose-Einstein condensates and degenerate Fermi gases of several ytterbium isotopes. Our setup does not require a Zeeman slower and offers the flexibility to simultaneously produce ultracold samples of other atomic species. Furthermore, the extraordinary optical access favors future experiments in optical lattices. A 2D-MOT on the strong (1)S0 → (1)P1 transition captures ytterbium directly from a dispenser of atoms and loads a 3D-MOT on the narrow (1)S0 → (3)P1 intercombination transition. Subsequently, atoms are transferred to a crossed optical dipole trap and cooled evaporatively to quantum degeneracy.
Evaporative cooling of ultracold Yb atoms near the quantum-degenerate regime was experimentally studied. Three bosons of 170Yb, 172Yb, 176Yb and two fermions of 171Yb and 173Yb were evaporatively cooled in a crossed far-off resonant trap (FORT). We observed that 170Yb and 172Yb were not concentrated into the crossed region. We found that, in the cases of 176Yb atoms, atoms were concentrated well into the crossed region. The following evaporative cooling in the crossed region, however, did not work well. We performed the simultaneous trapping and sympathetic cooling in the crossed FORT by use of 172Yb-174Yb, 174Yb-176Yb, 172Yb-176Yb, and 171Yb-174Yb pairs. We observed that evaporative cooling worked well. This result shows that we succeeded in the enhancement of the atom collision rate. Especially, by use of 174Yb-176Yb mixture, we obtained cold 176Yb whose phase space density was 0.02. We observed a large atom loss, which limited the further sympathetic evaporative cooling. We also evaporatively cooled 174Yb in a 1D optical lattice. Evaporative cooling worked very well because the atoms were initially trapped at a high density. After evaporative cooling, we obtained very cold atoms, and T/TF was estimated to be 1.2.
We describe in detail our recent experiments on quantum degenerate gases of ytterbium (Yb) atoms. Up to now Bose–Einstein condensates of 174 Yb and 170 Yb, and a Fermi degenerate gas of 173 Yb have been realized by efficient evaporative cooling in a crossed far-off resonant trap. Our studies showed that the efficient escape from the trap and rapid thermalization are important for efficient evaporative cooling. We also describe some recent experiments using Yb Bose–Einstein condensates such as the achievement of a scalar atom laser, the observation of an optical coherent transient, and successful loading into an optical lattice. Finally, the future prospects using Yb quantum degenerate gases are discussed in detail.
We report on the design and construction of a versatile setup for experiments with ultracold lithium (Li) gases. We discuss our methods to prepare an atomic beam and laser cool it in a Zeeman slower and a subsequent magneto-optical trap, which rely on established methods. We focus on our laser system based on a stable interference-filter-stabilized, linear-extended-cavity diode laser, so far unreported for lithium wavelengths. Moreover, we describe our optical setup to combine various laser frequencies for cooling, manipulation, and detection of Li atoms. We characterize the performance of our system preparing degenerate samples of Li atoms via forced evaporation in a hybrid crossed-beam optical-dipole trap plus confining magnetic trap. Our apparatus allows one to produce quantum gases of N ≈ 105…106 fermionic lithium-6 atoms at nanokelvin temperatures in cycle times below 10 s. Our optical system is particularly suited to study the dynamics of fermionic superfluids in engineered optical potentials.