Efficient demagnetization cooling of atoms and its limits

2014

Article

OS Lab

Demagnetization cooling relies on spin-orbit coupling that brings motional and spin degrees of freedom into thermal equilibrium. In the case of a gas, one has the advantage that the spin degree of freedom can be cooled very efficiently using optical pumping. We investigate demagnetization cooling of a chromium gas in a deep optical dipole trap over a large temperature range and reach high densities up to 5×10^19 m^−3. We study the loss mechanism under such extreme conditions and identify excited-state collisions as the main limiting process. We discuss that in some systems demagnetization cooling has a realistic potential of reaching degeneracy by optical cooling only.

@article{effdmg14,
  title = {Efficient demagnetization cooling of atoms and its limits},
  author = {Volchkov, Valentin and R{\"u}hrig, Jahn and Pfau, Tilman and Griesmaier, Axel},
  journal = {Physical Review A},
  volume = {89},
  pages = {043417},
  publisher = {American Physical Society (APS)},
  month = apr,
  year = {2014},
  doi = {10.1103/PhysRevA.89.043417},
  month_numeric = {4}
}