Researchers of the BEC team from the Laboratoire Kastler Brossel, Collège de France, published an article in the Physical Review Journals.
The authors :
- Maxime LECOMTE
- Alexandre JOURNEAUX
- Julie VESCHAMBRE
- Jean DALIBARD
- Raphael LOPES
Binary dipolar mixtures hold great potential for realizing exotic quantum phases, including supersolids—states of matter that combine crystalline order with superfluidity. In this work, we demonstrate the creation and stabilization of a binary mixture of ultracold dysprosium atoms in different internal states, with a spectacular suppression of inelastic dipolar relaxation by two orders of magnitude compared to the Wigner threshold law. This enhanced stability enabled the first estimation of the mixture’s elastic scattering properties. These results pave the way for probing supersolidity and other strongly correlated phases in binary dipolar gases.
© Raphael Lopes, LKB, Collège de France
Schematic representation of the experimental protocol.Left: two orizontal laser beams (Raman 1 and Raman 2) induce a Raman transition between nearest Zeeman sublevels. The vertical laser beam induces a spin-dependent light shift, allowing us to selectively couple the two lowest-energy Zeeman sublevels. Right panel: absorption images of Bose-Einstein condensates in different internal states, captured after time-of-flight (TOF) expansion in the presence of a magnetic field gradient. The rightmost absorption image corresponds to a BEC preparation in |−7⟩ with purity >95%. Dashed lines serve as guides to the eye for the spatial position of atoms in states |−8⟩, |−7⟩, and |−6⟩.