Bose-Einstein condensation of non-ground-state caesium atoms

Horvath, Milena; Dhar, Sudipta; Das, Arpita; Frye, Matthew D.; Guo, Yanliang; Hutson, Jeremy M.; Landini, Manuele; Nägerl, Hanns-Christoph

Abstract

Bose-Einstein condensates of ultracold atoms serve as low-entropy sources for a multitude of quantum-science applications, ranging from quantum simulation and quantum many-body physics to proof-of-principle experiments in quantum metrology and quantum computing. For stability reasons, in the majority of cases the energetically lowest-lying atomic spin state is used. Here, we report the Bose-Einstein condensation of caesium atoms in the Zeeman-excited mf = 2 state, realizing a non-ground-state Bose-Einstein condensate with tunable interactions and tunable loss. We identify two regions of magnetic field in which the two-body relaxation rate is low enough that condensation is possible. We characterize the phase transition and quantify the loss processes, finding unusually high three-body losses in one of the two regions. Our results open up new possibilities for the mixing of quantum-degenerate gases, for polaron and impurity physics, and in particular for the study of impurity transport in strongly correlated one-dimensional quantum wires.

Citation

Horvath, M., Dhar, S., Das, A., Frye, M. D., Guo, Y., Hutson, J. M., …Nägerl, H. (2024). Bose-Einstein condensation of non-ground-state caesium atoms. Nature Communications, 15(1), Article 3739. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-47760-0

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Apr 10, 2024
• Online Publication Date: May 3, 2024
• Publication Date: May 3, 2024
• Deposit Date: Mar 29, 2024
• Publicly Available Date: May 13, 2024
• Journal: Nature Communications
• Publisher: Nature Research
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 15
• Issue: 1
• Article Number: 3739
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-47760-0
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/2350085