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arXiv · 1611.01430

An ultracold, optically trapped mixture of {87}Rb and metastable {4}He atoms

Adonis Silva Flores·Hari Prasad Mishra·Wim Vassen·Steven Knoop
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Abstract

We report on the realization of an ultracold (<25~muK) mixture of rubidium ({87}Rb) and metastable triplet helium ({4}He) in an optical dipole trap. Our scheme involves laser cooling in a dual-species magneto-optical trap, simultaneous MW- and RF-induced forced evaporative cooling in a quadrupole magnetic trap, and transfer to a single-beam optical dipole trap. We observe long trapping lifetimes for the doubly spin-stretched spin-state mixture and measure much shorter lifetimes for other spin-state combinations. We discuss prospects for realizing quantum degenerate mixtures of alkali-metal and metastable helium atoms.

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Adonis Silva Flores, Hari Prasad Mishra, Wim Vassen, Steven Knoop. 2016-11-04. An ultracold, optically trapped mixture of {87}Rb and metastable {4}He atoms. https://doi.org/10.1140/epjd%2Fe2017-70675-y

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