• Physics 15, s157
A Bose-Einstein condensate of europium atoms supplies a brand new experimental platform for learning quantum spin interactions.
For the reason that 1995 creation of the primary Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC), researchers have cooled and confined atoms into BECs to review numerous issues in quantum many-body programs. A BEC’s observable properties depend upon the atom being confined. Thus, researchers wish to create condensates from as many atomic species as attainable. To that finish, Yuki Miyazawa of the Tokyo Institute of Expertise and his colleagues have now fashioned a BEC from europium atoms [1]. Europium atoms have a uncommon symmetric digital construction, and so they work together with each other through robust, magnetic dipole-dipole interactions. This mixture of options ought to result in a BEC wherein the spin-dependent interactions of atoms are smaller than their dipole interactions, an unexplored regime. Thus, the research permits for the potential of delving into new spin-related phenomena.
To create a BEC from europium, Miyazawa and colleagues confined europium atoms in an optical lure constituted of two crossed lasers. Decreasing the ability of one of many lasers, the staff evaporatively cooled the atoms whereas retaining them concentrated within the area the place the lasers crossed.
The staff produced a BEC containing atoms. Utilizing established strategies for measuring the short-range interactions between atoms, Miyazawa and colleagues discovered that they may manipulate the energy of those interactions by making use of a really low magnetic area to the BEC. The staff says that this management might allow researchers to create novel BEC quantum phases utilizing this method.
In pictures of the atoms’ spatial distributions, the staff additionally discovered proof that each collapse of the BEC and construction formation inside it resulted from the robust dipolar interactions of the atoms. This discovering signifies that these dipolar actions persist inside the BEC and compete with spin-dependent interactions.
–Rachel Berkowitz
Rachel Berkowitz is a Corresponding Editor for Physics Journal based mostly in Vancouver, Canada.
References
- Y. Miyazawa et al., “Bose-Einstein condensation of europium,” Phys. Rev. Lett. 129, 223401 (2022).
