Related papers: All-Optical Formation of Quantum Degenerate Mixtur…
The transition from a superfluid to a Mott insulator (MI) phase has been observed in a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) of ytterbium (Yb) atoms in an optical lattice. An all-optically produced BEC of 174Yb atoms was loaded into…
Quantum degenerate mixtures of alkali and spin-singlet atoms form the starting point for studying few- and many-body physics of mass-imbalanced pairs as well as the production of paramagnetic polar molecules. We recently reported the…
Trapped bosonic atoms can be cooled down to temperatures where the atomic cloud experiences Bose-Einstein condensation. Almost all atoms in a dilute gaseous system can be Bose-condensed, which implies that this system is in a coherent…
In order to study ultracold charge-transfer processes in hybrid atom-ion traps, we have mapped out the potential energy curves and molecular parameters for several low lying states of the Rb, Yb$^+$ system. We employ both a multi-reference…
We present an experimental scheme for producing ultracold Ytterbium atoms in a compact dual-chamber setup. A dispenser-loaded two-dimensional (2D) magneto-optical trap (MOT) using permanent magnets and operating on the broad $^1S_0\to…
Based on an experimental study of two-body and three-body collisions in ultracold strontium samples, a novel optical-sympathetic cooling method in isotopic mixtures is demonstrated. Without evaporative cooling, a phase-space density of…
We have successfully implemented the first simultaneous magneto-optical trapping (MOT) of lithium ($^6$Li) and ytterbium ($^{174}$Yb) atoms, towards production of ultracold polar molecules of LiYb. For this purpose, we developed the dual…
Efficient high-fidelity ground-state cooling of motional degrees of freedom is crucial for applications in quantum simulation, computing and metrology. Here, we demonstrate direct ground-state cooling of fermionic $^{171}$Yb and bosonic…
We develop an optical lattice system for an ultracold atomic gas mixture of ytterbium (174Yb) and lithium (6Li), which is an ideal system to study disorder and impurity problems. We load a Bose-Einstein condensate of 174Yb into a…
Great advances in precision quantum measurement have been achieved with trapped ions and atomic gases at the lowest possible temperatures. These successes have inspired ideas to merge the two systems. In this way one can study the unique…
Degenerate quantum gases are instrumental in advancing many-body quantum physics and underpin emerging precision sensing technologies. All state-of-the-art experiments use evaporative cooling to achieve the ultracold temperatures needed for…
We report measurement of inelastic loss in dense and cold metastable ytterbium (Yb[$^3P_2$]). Use of an optical far-off-resonance trap enables us to trap atoms in all magnetic sublevels, removing multichannel collisional trap loss from the…
It has long been expected that quantum degenerate gases of molecules would open access to a wide range of phenomena in molecular and quantum sciences. However, the very complexity that makes ultracold molecules so enticing has made reaching…
Sympathetic cooling of an atomic Fermi gas by a Bose gas is studied by solution of the coupled quantum Boltzmann equations for the confined gas mixture. Results for equilibrium temperatures and relaxation dynamics are presented, and some…
We have argued that a high-purity Yb-doped silica glass can potentially be cooled via anti-Stokes fluorescence optical refrigeration. This conclusion is reached by showing, using reasonable assumptions for the host material properties, that…
We report on the successful extension of production of Bose-Einstein Condensate (BEC) to rare species. Despite its low natural abundance of 0.13%, $^{168}$Yb is directly evaporatively cooled down to BEC. Our successful demonstration…
We review recent experimental and theoretical progress on ultracold alkaline-earth Fermi gases with emergent SU$(N)$ symmetry. Emphasis is placed on describing the ground-breaking experimental achievements of recent years. The latter…
We have successfully loaded a magneto-optic trap for Yb atoms from a thermal source without the use of a Zeeman slower. The source is placed close to the trapping region so that it provides a large flux of atoms that can be cooled and…
We demonstrate launching of laser-cooled Yb atoms in a cold atomic fountain. Atoms in a collimated thermal beam are first cooled and captured in a magneto-optic trap (MOT) operating on the strongly-allowed ${^1S}_0 \rightarrow {^1P}_1$…
We report on the achievement of quantum degeneracy in both components of a Bose-Fermi mixture of metastable helium atoms, $^4$He* and $^3$He*. Degeneracy is achieved via Doppler cooling and forced evaporation for $^4$He*, and…