English

Rapid generation of all-optical $^{39}$K Bose-Einstein condensates using a low-field Feshbach resonance

Quantum Gases 2022-10-24 v3 Atomic Physics Quantum Physics

Abstract

Ultracold potassium is an interesting candidate for quantum technology applications and fundamental research as it allows controlling intra-atomic interactions via low-field magnetic Feshbach resonances. However, the realization of high-flux sources of Bose-Einstein condensates remains challenging due to the necessity of optical trapping to use magnetic fields as free parameter. We investigate the production of all-optical 39^{39}K Bose-Einstein condensates with different scattering lengths using a Feshbach resonance near 3333 G. By tuning the scattering length in a range between 75a075\, a_0 and 300a0300\, a_0 we demonstrate a trade off between evaporation speed and final atom number and decrease our evaporation time by a factor of 55 while approximately doubling the evaporation flux. To this end, we are able to produce fully condensed ensembles with 5.8×1045.8\times10^4 atoms within 850850 ms evaporation time at a scattering length of 232a0232\, a_0 and 1.6×1051.6\times10^5 atoms within 3.93.9 s at 158a0158\, a_0, respectively. We deploy a numerical model to analyse the flux and atom number scaling with respect to scattering length, identify current limitations and simulate the optimal performance of our setup. Based on our findings we describe routes towards high-flux sources of ultra-cold potassium for inertial sensing.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2201.04544,
  title  = {Rapid generation of all-optical $^{39}$K Bose-Einstein condensates using a low-field Feshbach resonance},
  author = {Alexander Herbst and Henning Albers and Knut Stolzenberg and Sebastian Bode and Dennis Schlippert},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2201.04544},
  year   = {2022}
}