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Cooling an Optically Trapped Ultracold Fermi Gas by Periodical Driving

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Published on: March 30, 2017

Trapping cold ground state argon atoms.

P D Edmunds¹, P F Barker¹

¹Department of Physics and Astronomy, University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT, United Kingdom.

Physical Review Letters

|November 15, 2014

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

We demonstrate trapping cold, ground state argon atoms for sympathetic cooling. This method allows detection via metastable atom collisions, yielding elastic cross sections and polarizability measurements.

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Area of Science:

Atomic physics
Quantum optics
Cold atom experiments

Background:

Ground state argon atoms are challenging to trap and probe directly.
Laser-cooled metastable argon atoms offer a pathway for indirect detection.
Optical dipole traps are crucial for manipulating neutral atoms.

Purpose of the Study:

To develop a method for trapping and detecting cold, ground state argon atoms.
To utilize these atoms as a source for sympathetic cooling of molecules.
To measure key atomic properties of metastable argon.

Main Methods:

Employing a buildup cavity to create a deep optical dipole trap.
Loading ground state atoms by quenching from laser-cooled metastable argon.
Detecting ground state atoms through collisional loss of cotrapped metastable atoms.
Utilizing parametric loss spectroscopy to determine atomic properties.

Main Results:

Successfully trapped cold, ground state argon atoms.
Determined the elastic cross section for atom-atom collisions.
Measured the polarizability of the metastable 4s[3/2](2) state as (7.3±1.1)×10(-39) C m(2)/V.
Quantified Penning and associative loss rates for metastable atoms.

Conclusions:

The developed trapping technique enables the study of otherwise inaccessible ground state argon atoms.
The measured properties are vital for advancing cold atom applications, including sympathetic cooling.
This work provides a foundation for future investigations into ultracold atomic systems.