We demonstrate a novel way of synthesizing spin-orbit interactions in ultracold quantum gases, based on a single-photon optical clock transition coupling two long-lived electronic states of two-electron ¹⁷³Yb atoms. By mapping the electronic states onto effective sites along a synthetic “electronic” dimension, we have engineered fermionic ladders with synthetic magnetic flux in an experimental configuration that has allowed us to achieve uniform fluxes on a lattice with minimal requirements and unprecedented tunability. We have detected the spin-orbit coupling with fiber-link-enhanced clock spectroscopy and directly measured the emergence of chiral edge currents, probing them as a function of the flux. These results open new directions for the investigation of topological states of matter with ultracold atomic gases.

L. F. Livi et al.,
Synthetic Dimensions and Spin-Orbit Coupling with an Optical Clock Transition
Phys. Rev. Lett. 117, 220401 (2016)

We realize a magneto-optical trap for ¹⁶²Dy atoms on the intermediate linewidth transition at 626 nm. We trap over 2✕10⁸ atoms at temperatures as low as 20 μK in 5 seconds. We observe the best loading at large detuning, -35Γ. Under these operating conditions, MOT forms below the quadrupole centre and the MOT light acts as optical pumping as well.

E. Lucioni et al.
A new setup for experiments with ultracold Dysprosium atoms
Eur. Phys. J. Spec. Top. 226, 2775 (2017)

Starting today the Lithium Lab will host the new Marie Sklodowska-Curie project SCOUTFermi2D awarded to Francesco Scazza. Congratulations!

We finished assembling the vacuum setup. In the final cell, we included a passive high finesse optical resonator to transfer a large volume of atoms from the MOT to an optical trap that requires low power.

Global Positioning System (GPS) dissemination of frequency standards is ubiquitous at present, providing the most widespread time and frequency reference for the majority of industrial and research applications worldwide. On the other hand, the ultimate limits of the GPS presently curb further advances in high-precision, scientific and industrial applications relying on this dissemination scheme. Here, we demonstrate that these limits can be reliably overcome even in laboratories without a local atomic clock by replacing the GPS with a 642-km-long optical fiber link to a remote primary caesium frequency standard. Through this configuration we stably address the ¹S₀ → ³P₀ clock transition in an ultracold gas of ¹⁷³Yb, with a precision that exceeds the possibilities of a GPS-based measurement, dismissing the need for a local clock infrastructure to perform beyond-GPS high-precision tasks. We also report an improvement of two orders of magnitude in the accuracy on the transition frequency reported in literature.

C. Clivati et al.,
Measuring absolute frequencies beyond the GPS limit via long-haul optical frequency dissemination
Opt. Express 24, 11865 (2016)