We report on the realization of an ultracold (<25 μK) mixture of rubidium (87Rb) and metastable triplet helium (4He) in an optical dipole trap. Our scheme involves laser cooling in a dual-species magneto-optical trap, simultaneous MW- and RF-induced forced evaporative cooling in a quadrupole magnetic trap, and transfer to a single-beam optical dipole trap. We observe long trapping lifetimes for the doubly spin-stretched spin-state mixture and measure much shorter lifetimes for other spin-state combinations. We discuss prospects for realizing quantum degenerate mixtures of alkali-metal and metastable helium atoms.We report on the realization of an ultracold (<25 μK) mixture of rubidium (87Rb) and metastable triplet helium (4He) in an optical dipole trap. Our scheme involves laser cooling in a dual-species magneto-optical trap, simultaneous MW- and RF-induced forced evaporative cooling in a quadrupole magnetic trap, and transfer to a single-beam optical dipole trap. We observe long trapping lifetimes for the doubly spin-stretched spin-state mixture and measure much shorter lifetimes for other spin-state combinations. We discuss prospects for realizing quantum degenerate mixtures of alkali-metal and metastable helium atoms.

arXiv:1611.01430The European Physical Journal DMar 1, 20178 citations

Ab initiointeraction potentials and scattering lengths for ultracold mixtures of metastable helium and alkali-metal atoms

Dariusz Kędziera, Ł. M. Mentel, Piotr Szymon Żuchowski +1 more

We have obtained accurate ab initio $^{4}\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Sigma}}^{+}$ quartet potentials for the diatomic metastable triplet helium+alkali-metal (Li, Na, K, Rb) systems, using all-electron restricted open-shell coupled cluster singles and doubles with noniterative triples corrections CCSD(T) calculations and accurate calculations of the long-range ${C}_{6}$ coefficients. These potentials provide accurate ab initio quartet scattering lengths, which for these many-electron systems is possible, because of the small reduced masses and shallow potentials that result in a small amount of bound states. Our results are relevant for ultracold metastable triplet helium+alkali-metal mixture experiments.We have obtained accurate ab initio $^{4}\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Sigma}}^{+}$ quartet potentials for the diatomic metastable triplet helium+alkali-metal (Li, Na, K, Rb) systems, using all-electron restricted open-shell coupled cluster singles and doubles with noniterative triples corrections CCSD(T) calculations and accurate calculations of the long-range ${C}_{6}$ coefficients. These potentials provide accurate ab initio quartet scattering lengths, which for these many-electron systems is possible, because of the small reduced masses and shallow potentials that result in a small amount of bound states. Our results are relevant for ultracold metastable triplet helium+alkali-metal mixture experiments.

arXiv:1501.00884Physical Review AJun 25, 20157 citations

{C}_{6}

coefficients. These potentials provide accurate ab initio quartet scattering lengths, which for these many-electron systems is possible, because of the small reduced masses and shallow potentials that result in a small amount of bound states. Our results are relevant for ultracold metastable triplet helium+alkali-metal mixture experiments.