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Updated: Dec 28, 2025

Cooling an Optically Trapped Ultracold Fermi Gas by Periodical Driving
Published on: March 30, 2017
Optical Traps for Sympathetic Cooling of Ions with Ultracold Neutral Atoms
J Schmidt1,2, P Weckesser2, F Thielemann2
1Laboratoire Kastler Brossel, UPMC-Sorbonne Université, CNRS, ENS-PSL Research University, Collège de France, 4 place Jussieu, Paris 75005, France.
Abstract:
We report the trapping of ultracold neutral Rb atoms and Ba^{+} ions in a common optical potential in absence of any radio frequency (rf) fields. We prepare Ba^{+} at 370 μK and demonstrate efficient sympathetic cooling by 100 μK after one collision. Our approach is currently limited by the Rb density and related three-body losses, but it overcomes the fundamental limitation in rf traps set by rf-driven, micromotion-induced heating. It is applicable to a wide range of ion-atom species, and may enable novel ultracold chemistry experiments and complex many-body dynamics.
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