Work

Spin Gradient Demagnetization Cooling of Ultracold Atoms

Year: 2011

Type: article

Abstract: We demonstrate a new cooling method in which a time-varying magnetic field gradient is applied to an ultracold spin mixture. This enables preparation of isolated spin distributions at positive and negative effective spin temperatures of ±50 pK. The spin system can also be used to cool other degrees of freedom, and we have used this coupling to cool an apparently equilibrated Mott insulator of rubidium atoms to 350 pK. These are the lowest temperatures ever measured in any system. The entropy of the spin mixture is in the regime where magnetic ordering is expected.

Source: Physical Review Letters

DOI: 10.1103/physrevlett.106.195301

Authors: Patrick Medley, David M. Weld, Hirokazu Miyake, David E. Pritchard, Wolfgang Ketterle

Institutions: MIT-Harvard Center for Ultracold Atoms, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Language: English

Topic: Cold Atom Physics and Bose-Einstein Condensates

Subfield: Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics

Field: Physics and Astronomy

Domain: Physical Sciences

Open Access status: bronze