Abstract
We report on the achievement of Bose-Einstein condensation of erbium atoms and on the observation of magnetic Feshbach resonances at low magnetic fields. By means of evaporative cooling in an optical dipole trap, we produce pure condensates of , containing up to atoms. Feshbach spectroscopy reveals an extraordinary rich loss spectrum with six loss resonances already in a narrow magnetic-field range up to 3 G. Finally, we demonstrate the application of a low-field Feshbach resonance to produce a tunable dipolar Bose-Einstein condensate and we observe its characteristic -wave collapse.
- Received 6 April 2012
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.108.210401
© 2012 American Physical Society
Viewpoint
Quantum Dipolar Gases in Boson or Fermion Flavor
Published 21 May 2012
Lanthanide atoms are offering the best opportunities to study the effects of strong dipolar interactions in a quantum gas.
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