Optical Traps for Sympathetic Cooling of Ions with Ultracold Neutral Atoms

We report the trapping of ultracold neutral Rb atoms and Ba^{+} ions in a common optical potential in absence of any radio frequency (rf) fields. We prepare Ba^{+} at 370  μK and demonstrate efficient sympathetic cooling by 100  μK after one collision. Our approach is currently limited by the Rb den...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Physical review letters 2020-02, Vol.124 (5), p.053402-053402, Article 053402
Main Authors: Schmidt, J, Weckesser, P, Thielemann, F, Schaetz, T, Karpa, L
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Cooling
Neutral atoms
Optical traps
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Summary:We report the trapping of ultracold neutral Rb atoms and Ba^{+} ions in a common optical potential in absence of any radio frequency (rf) fields. We prepare Ba^{+} at 370  μK and demonstrate efficient sympathetic cooling by 100  μK after one collision. Our approach is currently limited by the Rb density and related three-body losses, but it overcomes the fundamental limitation in rf traps set by rf-driven, micromotion-induced heating. It is applicable to a wide range of ion-atom species, and may enable novel ultracold chemistry experiments and complex many-body dynamics.
ISSN:0031-9007
1079-7114
DOI:10.1103/PhysRevLett.124.053402