A new apparatus for quantum simulation with ultracold dipolar erbium atoms
Bojeong Seo, Ziting Chen, Yeeming Tso +4 more
Recently Lanthanide atoms such as dysprosium and erbium have attracted significant attention in quantum simulation with ultracold atoms due to their large magnetic moment and meta-stable excited states. Here, we present our on-going efforts for developing a versatile erbium apparatus in which various exotic states of matter, such as quantum droplets, can be emulated. Slow erbium atoms generated by a spin-flip Zeeman slower are trapped by a magneto-optical trap (MOT). We implement a bi-chromatic MOT, consisting of singlet (4f 126s 2 3H6 → 4f 12( 3H6)6s6p( 1P1)) and triplet (4f 126s 2 3H6 → 4f 12( 3H6)6s6p( 3P1)) transitions, which increases the repetition rate of experiment. We will discuss experimental details that produce a degenerate quantum gas of erbium atoms in the apparatus.
Bulletin of the American Physical Society•May 30, 2019•0 citations