Ultracold He*+Rb mixture experiment

We are setting up an experiment to produce an ultracold atomic mixture of metastable triplet He (He*) and Rb. Our cooling strategy is based on a two-species MOT, forced evaporative and sympathetic in a magnetic trap and a 1557-nm crossed optical dipole trap. We will search for interspecies Feshbach resonances, which will be used to control the interaction between the He* and the Rb atoms, associate ultracold He*Rb molecules and search for Efimov trimers.

Check our latest poster (Physics@FOM, Veldhoven, January 17-18, 2012)

Lab highlights

March 2012, He* in magnetic trap

We have transferred He* atoms from MOT to quadrupole magnetic trap (MT).
Figure shows signals from a microchannel plate (MCP), which lies 10 cm below the MOT/MT.
Inset shows the lifetime of the atoms in the MT, about 6 s, limited by background collisions.

February 2012, He* MOT

Our first He* MOT (fluorescence captured by Xeva InGaAs camera)

For more highlights, check lab news

People

• Hari Prasad Mishra (PhD)

• Tim Berrier (Bachelor project)

• Dr. Wim Vassen

• Dr. Steven Knoop (PI)

Funding

This research is funded by NWO via a VIDI grant and FOM via a Projectruimte grant.

Contact: s.knoop@vu.nl