We aim to widen the range of quantum simulations with cold atoms, by investigating phenomena arising from the long-ranged dipolar interaction in reduced dimensionalities. We are operating a new experimental setup based on quantum gases of the highly magnetic Dysprosium atoms. This is a joint project between LENS and CNR-INO, Sezione di Pisa.

BEC transition of Dysprosium observed

Dy Lab

We observed the transition to BEC for 162Dy atoms!
Our dipolar BECs are made up at the moment by up to 3⨯104 atoms. Atoms from the MOT are transferred into an in-vacuum optical resonator where we perform a first evaporation down to a few μK. Afterwards, we load the atoms in a crossed optical trap and condensation temperature is reached by evaporation ramps. The atomic dipoles are aligned along the vertical direction by an uniform magnetic field of a few Gauss and the vertical trapping frequency is higher than the horizontal ones to prevent dipolar collapse. The transition temperature for our trapping potential is below 100 nK.

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