Bose-Einstein condensation of alkaline earth atoms: ${}^{40}${Ca}

Abstract

We have achieved Bose-Einstein condensation of ${}^{40}$Ca, the first for an alkaline earth element. The influence of elastic and inelastic collisions associated with the large ground state s-wave scattering length of ${}^{40}$Ca was measured. From these findings, an optimized loading and cooling scheme was developed that allowed us to condense about $2\cdot 10^4$ atoms after laser cooling in a two-stage magneto-optical trap and subsequent forced evaporation in a crossed dipole trap within less than 3 s. The condensation of an alkaline earth element opens novel opportunities for precision measurements on the narrow intercombination lines as well as investigations of molecular states at the ${}^1$S--${}^3$P asymptotes.

References in corpus (3)

• Bose-Einstein Condensation of an Ytterbium Isotope
• Probing Interactions between Ultracold Fermions
• A Mott Insulator of Ultracold Alkaline-Earth-Like Atoms

Cited by in corpus (6)

• Production of quantum degenerate strontium gases: Larger, better, faster, colder
• Rovibrational dynamics of the strontium molecule in the A^1Σ_u^+, c^3Π_u, and a^3Σ_u^+ manifold from state-of-the-art ab initio calculations
• Adiabatic loading of one-dimensional SU(N) alkaline earth fermions in optical lattices
• Doppler Spectroscopy of an Ytterbium Bose-Einstein Condensate on the Clock Transition
• The theory of quantum levitators
• Runaway evaporation for optically dressed atoms