We report the production of quantum degenerate Bose-Bose mixtures of Cs and Yb with both attractive (Cs + $^{174}$Yb) and repulsive (Cs + $^{170}$Yb) interspecies interactions. Dual-species evaporation is performed in a bichromatic optical dipole trap that combines light at 1070 nm and 532 nm to enable control of the relative trap depths for Cs and Yb. Maintaining a trap which is shallower for Yb throughout the evaporation leads to highly efficient sympathetic cooling of Cs for both isotopic combinations at magnetic fields close to the Efimov minimum in the Cs three-body recombination rate at around 22 G. For Cs + $^{174}$Yb, we produce quantum mixtures with typical atom numbers of $N_\mathrm{Yb} \sim 5 \times 10^4$ and $N_\mathrm{Cs} \sim 5 \times 10^3$. We find that the attractive interspecies interaction (characterised by the scattering length $a_\mathrm{CsYb} = -75\,a_0$) is stabilised by the repulsive intraspecies interactions. For Cs + $^{170}$Yb, we produce quantum mixtures with typical atom numbers of $N_\mathrm{Yb} \sim 4 \times 10^4$, and $N_\mathrm{Cs} \sim 1 \times 10^4$. Here, the repulsive interspecies interaction ($a_\mathrm{CsYb} = 96\,a_0$) can overwhelm the intraspecies interactions, such that the mixture sits in a region of partial miscibility.
Quantum degenerate mixtures of alkali and spin-singlet atoms form the starting point for studying few- and many-body physics of mass-imbalanced pairs as well as the production of paramagnetic polar molecules. We recently reported the achievement of dual-species quantum degeneracy of a mixture of lithium and ytterbium atoms. Here we present details of the key experimental steps for the all-optical preparation of these mixtures. Further we demonstrate the use of the magnetic field gradient tool to compensate for the differential gravitational sag of the two species and control their spatial over…
We report on the realization of quantum degenerate gas mixtures of the alkaline-earth element strontium with the alkali element rubidium. A key ingredient of our scheme is sympathetic cooling of Rb by Sr atoms that are continuously laser cooled on a narrow linewidth transition. This versatile technique allows us to produce ultracold gas mixtures with a phase-space density of up to 0.06 for both elements. By further evaporative cooling we create double Bose-Einstein condensates of 87Rb with either 88Sr or 84Sr, reaching more than 10^5 condensed atoms per element for the 84Sr-87Rb mixture. These…
We study three-body loss in an ultracold mixture of a thermal Bose gas and a degenerate Fermi gas. We find that at unitarity, where the interspecies scattering length diverges, the usual inverse-square temperature scaling of the three-body loss found in non-degenerate systems is strongly modified and reduced with the increasing degeneracy of the Fermi gas. While the reduction of loss is qualitatively explained within the few-body scattering framework, a remaining suppression provides evidence for the long-range RKKY interactions mediated by fermions between bosons. Our model based on RKKY inte…
We report on the preparation of a quantum degenerate mixture of $^{23}$Na$^{40}$K molecules and $^{40}$K atoms. A deeply degenerate atomic mixture of $^{23}$Na and $^{40}$K atoms with a large number ratio ($N_F/N_B\approx 6$) is prepared by the mode-matching loading of atoms from a cloverleaf-type magnetic trap into a large-volume horizontal optical dipole trap and evaporative cooling in a large-volume three-beam optical dipole trap. About $3.0\times10^4$ $^{23}$Na$^{40}$K ground-state molecules are created through magneto-association followed by stimulated adiabatic Raman passage. The 2D dens…
We realize simultaneous quantum degeneracy in mixtures consisting of the alkali and alkalineearth-like atoms Li and Yb. This is accomplished within an optical trap by sympathetic cooling of the fermionic isotope 6Li with evaporatively cooled bosonic 174Yb and, separately, fermionic 173Yb.Using cross-thermalization studies, we also measure the elastic s-wave scattering lengths of both Li-Yb combinations, |a6Li-174Yb| = 1.0\pm0.2 nm and |a6Li-173Yb| = 0.9\pm0.2 nm. The equality of these lengths is found to be consistent with mass-scaling analysis. The quantum degenerate mixtures of Li and Yb, as…
We report the first realization of a quantum degenerate mixture of bosonic $^{87}$Rb and fermionic $^{171}$Yb atoms in a hybrid optical dipole trap with a tunable, species-dependent trapping potential. $^{87}$Rb is shown to be a viable refrigerant for the non-interacting $^{171}$Yb atoms, cooling up to $2.4 \times 10^5$ $^{171}$Yb atoms to a temperature of $T/T_F = 0.16(2) $ while simultaneously forming a $^{87}$Rb BEC of $3.5 \times 10^5$ atoms. Furthermore we demonstrate our ability to independently tailor the potentials for each species, which paves the way for studying impurities immersed …
We report on the attainment of a degenerate Fermi gas of $\rm^{6}Li$ in contact with a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) of $^{84}$Sr. A degeneracy of $T/T_F=0.33(3)$ is observed with $1.6\times10^5$ $^{6}$Li atoms in the two lowest energy hyperfine states together with an almost pure BEC of $3.1\times10^5$ $^{84}$Sr atoms. The elastic s-wave scattering length between $^6$Li and $^{84}$Sr is estimated to be $|a_{\rm^{6}Li-\rm^{84}Sr}|=(7.1_{-1.7}^{+2.6})a_0$ ($a_0$ being the Bohr radius) from measured interspecies thermalization rates in an optical dipole trap.
We report a new apparatus for the study of two-species quantum degenerate mixture of $^{41}$K and $^6$Li atoms. We develop and combine several advanced cooling techniques to achieve both large atom number and high phase space density of the two-species atom clouds. Furthermore, we build a high-efficiency two-species magnetic transport system to transfer atom clouds from the 3D magneto-optical-trap chamber to a full glass science chamber of extreme high vacuum environment and good optical access. We perform a forced radio-frequency evaporative cooling for $^{41}$K atoms while the $^6$Li atoms a…
We report on the realization of a novel degenerate mixture of ultracold fermionic lithium and chromium atoms. Based on an all-optical approach, with an overall duty-cycle of about 13 seconds, we produce large and degenerate samples of more than 2$\times 10^5$ $^6$Li atoms and $10^5$ $^{53}$Cr atoms, with both species exhibiting normalized temperatures of about $T/T_{F}$=0.25. Additionally, through the exploitation of a crossed bichromatic optical dipole trap, we can controllably vary the density and degree of degeneracy of the two components almost independently, and widely tune the lithium-to…
We have produced a quantum degenerate mixture of fermionic alkali 6Li and bosonic spin-singlet 174Yb gases. This was achieved using sympathetic cooling of lithium atoms by evaporatively cooled ytterbium atoms in a far-off-resonant optical dipole trap. We observe co-existence of Bose condensed (T/T_c~0.8) 174Yb with 2.3*10^4 atoms and Fermi degenerate (T/T_F~0.3) 6Li with 1.2*10^4 atoms. Quasipure Bose-Einstein condensates of up to 3*10^4 174Yb atoms can be produced in single-species experiments. Our results mark a significant step toward studies of few and many-body physics with mixtures of al…
We present the essential experimental steps of our all-optical approach to prepare a double-degenerate Fermi-Fermi mixture of 6Li and 40K atoms, which then serves as a starting point for molecule formation. We first describe the optimized trap loading procedures, the internal-state preparation of the sample, and the combined evaporative and sympathetic cooling process. We then discuss the preparation of the sample near an interspecies Feshbach resonance, and we demonstrate the formation of heteronuclear molecules by a magnetic field ramp across the resonance.
We report on the realization of a mixture of fermionic $^{161}$Dy and fermionic $^{40}$K where both species are deep in the quantum-degenerate regime. Both components are spin-polarized in their absolute ground states, and the low temperatures are achieved by means of evaporative cooling of the dipolar dysprosium atoms together with sympathetic cooling of the potassium atoms. We describe the trapping and cooling methods, in particular the final evaporation stage, which leads to Fermi degeneracy of both species. Analyzing cross-species thermalization we obtain an estimate of the magnitude of th…
We report on the attainment of a spin-polarized Fermi sea of 87-Sr in thermal contact with a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) of 84-Sr. Interisotope collisions thermalize the fermions with the bosons during evaporative cooling. A degeneracy of T/T_F=0.30(5) is reached with 2x10^4 87-Sr atoms together with an almost pure 84-Sr BEC of 10^5 atoms.
We have created a quantum degenerate Bose-Fermi mixture of 23Na and 40K with widely tunable interactions via broad interspecies Feshbach resonances. Twenty Feshbach resonances between 23Na and 40K were identified. The large and negative triplet background scattering length between 23Na and 40K causes a sharp enhancement of the fermion density in the presence of a Bose condensate. As explained via the asymptotic bound-state model (ABM), this strong background scattering leads to a series of wide Feshbach resonances observed at low magnetic fields. Our work opens up the prospect to create chemic…
We probe the collective dynamics of a quantum degenerate Bose-Bose mixture of Cs and $^{174}$Yb with attractive interspecies interactions. Specifically, we excite vertical center of mass oscillations of the Cs condensate, and observe significant damping for the Cs dipole mode, due to the rapid transfer of energy to the larger Yb component, and the ensuing acoustic dissipation. Numerical simulations based on coupled Gross-Pitaevskii equations provide excellent agreement, and additionally reveal the possibility of late-time revivals (beating) which are found to be highly sensitive to the Cs and …
We report on the formation of a stable quantum degenerate mixture of fermionic $^6$Li and bosonic $^{133}$Cs in an optical trap by sympathetic cooling near an interspecies Feshbach resonance. New regimes of the quantum degenerate mixtures are identified. With moderate attractive interspecies interactions, we show that a degenerate Fermi gas of Li can be fully confined in the Cs condensate without external potentials. For stronger attraction where mean-field collapse is expected, no such instability is observed. In this case, we suggest the stability is a result of dynamic equilibrium, where th…
We present the exact solution for the many-body wavefunction of a one-dimensional mixture of bosons and spin-polarized fermions with equal masses and infinitely strong repulsive interactions under external confinement. Such a model displays a large degeneracy of the ground state. Using a generalized Bose-Fermi mapping we find the solution for the whole set of ground-state wavefunctions of the degenerate manifold and we characterize them according to group-symmetry considerations. We find that the density profile and the momentum distribution depends on the symmetry of the solution. By combinin…
First-order phase transition in atom-molecule quantum degenerate mixtures with coherent three-body recombination
Missouri University of Science and Technology（密苏里科技大学）；Ben-Gurion University of the Negev（内盖夫本古里安大学）；Harvard & Smithsonian（哈佛大学与史密森尼学会）；University of Chicago（芝加哥大学）
It has long been expected that quantum degenerate gases of molecules would open access to a wide range of phenomena in molecular and quantum sciences. However, the very complexity that makes ultracold molecules so enticing has made reaching degeneracy an outstanding experimental challenge over the past decade. We now report the production of a Fermi degenerate gas of ultracold polar molecules of potassium--rubidium (KRb). Through coherent adiabatic association in a deeply degenerate mixture of a rubidium Bose-Einstein condensate and a potassium Fermi gas, we produce molecules at temperatures b…
Tunable Field-Linked $s$-wave Interactions in Dipolar Fermi Mixtures
Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA)（奥地利科学技术研究院）；Vienna Center for Quantum Science and Technology, Atominstitut, TU Wien（维也纳量子科学与技术中心，原子研究所，维也纳工业大学）
We study one-dimensional strongly interacting Bose-Fermi mixtures by both the exact Bethe-ansatz method and variational perturbation theory within the degenerate ground state subspace of the system in the infinitely repulsive limit. Based on the exact solution of the one-dimensional Bose-Fermi gas with equal boson-boson and boson-fermion interaction strengths, we demonstrate that the ground state energy is degenerate for different Bose-Fermi configurations and the degeneracy is lifted when the interaction deviates the infinitely interacting limit. We then show that the ground properties in the…
Spin-polarized samples and spin mixtures of quantum degenerate fermionic atoms are prepared in selected excited Bloch bands of an optical chequerboard square lattice. For the spin-polarized case, extreme band lifetimes above $10\,$s are observed, reflecting the suppression of collisions by Pauli's exclusion principle. For spin mixtures, lifetimes are reduced by an order of magnitude by two-body collisions between different spin components, but still remarkably large values of about one second are found. By analyzing momentum spectra, we can directly observe the orbital character of the optical…
The ground state and spectral properties of Bose gases in double-well potentials are studied in two different scenarios: i) an interacting atomic Bose gas, and ii) a mixture of an atomic gas interacting with diatomic molecules. A ground state second-order quantum phase transition (QPT) is observed in both scenarios. For large attractive values of the atom-atom interaction, the ground-state is degenerate. For repulsive and small attractive interaction, the ground-state is not degenerate and is well approximated by a boson coherent state. Both systems depict an excited state quantum phase transi…
We examine the density profiles of the quantum degenerate Bose-Fermi mixture of $^{174}$Yb-$^{173}$Yb, experimental observed recently, in the mean field regime. In this mixture there is a possibility of tuning the Bose-Bose and Bose-Fermi interactions simultaneously using two well separated optical Feshbach resonances, and it is a good candidate to explore phase separation in Bose-Fermi mixtures. Depending on the Bose-Bose scattering length $a_\BB$, as the Bose-Fermi interaction is tuned the density of the fermions is pinched or swapping with bosons occurs.
Degenerate quantum gases of alkaline-earth-like elements open new opportunities in research areas ranging from molecular physics to the study of strongly correlated systems. These experiments exploit the rich electronic structure of these elements, which is markedly different from the one of other species for which quantum degeneracy has been attained. Specifically, alkaline-earth-like atoms, such as strontium, feature metastable triplet states, narrow intercombination lines, and a non-magnetic, closed-shell ground state. This review covers the creation of quantum degenerate gases of strontium…
We report quantum degeneracy in a gas of ultra-cold fermionic $^{87}$Sr atoms. By evaporatively cooling a mixture of spin states in an optical dipole trap for 10.5\,s, we obtain samples well into the degenerate regime with $T/T_F=0.26^{+.05}_{-.06}$. The main signature of degeneracy is a change in the momentum distribution as measured by time-of-flight imaging, and we also observe a decrease in evaporation efficiency below $T/T_F \sim 0.5$.
We report on the first realization of heteronuclear dipolar quantum mixtures of highly magnetic erbium and dysprosium atoms. With a versatile experimental setup, we demonstrate binary Bose-Einstein condensation in five different Er-Dy isotope combinations, as well as one Er-Dy Bose-Fermi mixture. Finally, we present first studies of the interspecies interaction between the two species for one mixture.
Quantum degenerate molecules represent a new paradigm for fundamental studies and practical applications. Association of already quantum degenerate atoms into molecules provides a crucial shortcut around the difficulty of cooling molecules to ultracold temperatures. Whereas association can be induced with either laser or magnetic fields, photoassociation requires impractical laser intensity to overcome poor overlap between the atom pair and molecular wavefunctions, and experiments are currently restricted to magnetoassociation. Here we model realistic production of a quantum degenerate gas of …
We investigate experimentally the entropy transfer between two distinguishable atomic quantum gases at ultralow temperatures. Exploiting a species-selective trapping potential, we are able to control the entropy of one target gas in presence of a second auxiliary gas. With this method, we drive the target gas into the degenerate regime in conditions of controlled temperature by transferring entropy to the auxiliary gas. We envision that our method could be useful both to achieve the low entropies required to realize new quantum phases and to measure the temperature of atoms in deep optical lat…
Weakly interacting Fermi gases exhibit rich collective dynamics in spin-dependent potentials, arising from correlations between spin degrees of freedom and conserved single atom energies, offering broad prospects for simulating many-body quantum systems by engineering energy-space "lattices," with controlled energy landscapes and site to site interactions. Using quantum degenerate clouds of $^6$Li, confined in a spin-dependent harmonic potential, we measure complex, time-dependent spin-density profiles, varying on length scales much smaller than the cloud size. We show that a one-dimensional m…
We investigate the quantum anomalous Hall effect in a mixture of ultra-cold neutral bosons and fermions held on a hexagonal optical lattice. In the strong atom-atom interaction limit, composite fermions composed of one fermion with bosons or bosonic holes in the mixture are formed. Such composite fermions have already been generated successfully in experiment [Nat. Phys. {\bf 7}, 642 (2011)]. Here we predict that this kind of composite fermions may provide a realization of the quantum anomalous Hall effect by tuning the atom-atom interaction or the filling of the bosons in the mixture. We also…
Quantum tunneling introduces a fundamental difference between classical and quantum mechanics. Whenever the classical ground state is non-unique (degenerate), quantum mechanics restore uniqueness thanks to tunneling. A condensate in a rotating trap with a vortex can have such a degenerate classical ground state, a degeneracy that is excluded in the absence of rotation at least when the Gross-Pitaevskii equation applies. If the rotating trap has a center of symmetry, like a figure eight (a peanut), the vortex may be on either side with the same energy yielding a degenerate ground state, a degen…
The one-dimensional interacting Bose-Fermi mixtures, exhibiting quantum phase transitions at zero temperature, are particularly valuable for the study of quantum critical phenomena. In the present paper, we analytically study quantum phase diagram, equation of state and quantum criticality of the Bose-Fermi mixture using the thermodynamic Bethe ansatz equations. We show that thermodynamical properties display universal scaling behaviour at quantum criticality. Furthermore, quantum criticality of the Bose-Fermi mixture in an harmonic trap is also studied within the local density approximation. …
We study the stability of the dilute Bose-Fermi and Bose-Bose mixtures with repulsive interactions in one and two dimensions in terms of the renormalization group. For the Bose-Fermi mixture, we show that the uniform mixture is stable against de-mixing in the dilute limit. For the Bose-Bose mixture, we give the stability conditions in the dilute limit. As a byproduct, we also calculate the critical temperature for the superfluid phase of the two-dimensional Bose-Fermi mixture in the extremely dilute limit.
In this thesis, the properties of mixtures of Bose-Einstein condensates at $T = 0$ have been investigated using quantum Monte Carlo (QMC) methods and Density Functional Theory (DFT) with the aim of understanding physics beyond the mean-field theory in Bose-Bose mixtures.
We present a novel approach to modeling dynamics of trapped, degenerate, weakly interacting Bose gases beyond the mean field limit. We transform a many-body problem to the interaction representation with respect to a suitably chosen part of the Hamiltonian and only then apply a multimode coherent-state ansatz. The obtained equations are almost as simple as the Gross--Pitaevskii equation, but our approach captures essential features of the quantum dynamics such as the collapse of coherence.
We study cavity optomechanics of a mixture of ultracold atoms with tunable nonlinear collisions. We show that atomic collisions provide linear couplings between fictitious condensate oscillators, leading to possibilities of achieving a globally coupled quantum optomechanical network with an integrated atom chip. Potential applications range from simulating collective nonequilibrium dynamics in fields well past physics to probing unique properties of quantum mixtures.
