Characterisation of three-body loss in ${}^{166}$Er and optimised production of large Bose-Einstein condensates

Abstract

Ultracold gases of highly magnetic lanthanide atoms have enabled the realisation of dipolar quantum droplets and supersolids. However, future studies could be limited by the achievable atom numbers and hindered by high three-body loss rates. Here we study density-dependent atom loss in an ultracold gas of ${}^{166}$Er for magnetic fields below 4 G, identifying six previously unreported, strongly temperature-dependent features. We find that their positions and widths show a linear temperature dependence up to at least $15\mu \text{K}$. In addition, we observe a weak, polarisation-dependent shift of the loss features with the intensity of the light used to optically trap the atoms. This detailed knowledge of the loss landscape allows us to optimise the production of dipolar BECs with more than $2\times 10^5$ atoms and points towards optimal strategies for the study of large-atom-number dipolar gases in the droplet and supersolid regimes.

7 pages, 4 figures

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• Combination of a magnetic Feshbach resonance and an optical bound-to-bound transition
• Accurate determination of the scattering length of erbium atoms
• Characterizing the temperature dependence of Fano-Feshbach resonances of Ultracold Polarized Thulium

Cited by in corpus (6)

• Production and stabilization of a spin mixture of ultracold dipolar Bose gases
• Anomalous dispersion of shear waves in dipolar supersolids
• Honeycomb supersolid -- Dirac points and shear-instability induced crystal transitions
• Universal properties of dipolar Bose polarons in two dimensions
• Creation of a degenerate Bose-Bose mixture of erbium and lithium atoms
• Expansion dynamics of a cylindrical-shell-shaped strongly dipolar condensate