Creation of Quantum-Degenerate Gases of Ytterbium in a Compact 2D-/3D-MOT Setup

5 March 2013

Photo: Reprinted with permission from Dörscher et al., Review of scientific instruments 84, 043109 (2013), Copyright AIP Publishing.

We report on the first experimental setup based on a 2D-/3D-MOT scheme to create both Bose-Einstein condensates and degenerate Fermi gases of several ytterbium isotopes. Our setup does not require a Zeeman slower and offers the flexibility to simultaneously produce ultracold samples of other atomic species. Furthermore, the extraordinary optical access favors future experiments in optical lattices. A 2D-MOT on the strong ¹S₀-¹P₁ transition captures ytterbium directly from a dispenser of atoms and loads a 3D-MOT on the narrow ¹S₀-³P₁ intercombination transition. Subsequently, atoms are transferred to a crossed optical dipole trap and cooled evaporatively to quantum degeneracy.

Read the original article Dörscher et al., Review of Scientific Instruments 84, 043109 (2013)