arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to G. Modugno.
We produce a quantum degenerate mixture composed by two Bose-Einstein condensates of different atomic species, 41 K and 87 Rb. We study the dynamics of the superfluid system in an elongated magnetic trap, where off-axis collisions between the two interacting condensates induce scissors-like oscillation.
We report a comparative investigation of trap loss rates in a magneto-optical trap for two potassium isotopes, 39K and 40K, as a function of trap light intensity. The isotopes present a quite similar behavior for the loss rates at high intensities, and a sudden increase of the loss rates at low intensities is present in both cases. While for 39K such increase can be explained assuming that the major contribution to the losses comes from Hyperfine Changing Collisions, a different loss mechanism must be considered for 40K, which has an inverted ground state hyperfine structure. The experimental results of both isotopes are well reproduced by an alternative model based on radiative escape as the dominant loss mechanism.
We demonstrate the possibility of energy-selective removal of cold atoms from a tight optical trap by means of parametric excitation of the trap vibrational modes. Taking advantage of the anharmonicity of the trap potential, we selectively remove the most energetic trapped atoms or excite those at the bottom of the trap by tuning the parametric modulation frequency. This process, which had been previously identified as a possible source of heating, also appears to be a robust way for forcing evaporative cooling in anharmonic traps.
We study both experimentally and theoretically the losses induced by parametric excitation in far-off-resonance optical lattices. The atoms confined in a 1D sinusoidal lattice present an excitation spectrum and dynamics substantially different from those expected for a harmonic potential. We develop a model based on the actual atomic Hamiltonian in the lattice and we introduce semiempirically a broadening of the width of lattice energy bands which can physically arise from inhomogeneities and fluctuations of the lattice, and also from atomic collisions. The position and strength of the parametric resonances and the evolution of the number of trapped atoms are satisfactorily described by our model.
We report on trapping of fermionic 40K atoms in a red-detuned standing-wave optical trap, loaded from a magneto-optical trap. Typically, 10^6 atoms are loaded at a density of 10^12 cm^-3 and a temperature of 65 microK, and trapped for more than 1 s. The optical trap appears to be the proper environment for performing collisional measurements on the cold atomic sample. In particular we measure the elastic collisional rate by detecting the rethermalization following an intentional parametric heating of the atomic sample. We also measure the inelastic two-body collisional rates for unpolarized atoms in the ground hyperfine states, through detection of trap losses.
We report laser cooling of fermionic K-40 atoms, with temperatures down to (15 +/- 5) microK, for an enriched sample trapped in a MOT and additionaly cooled in optical molasses. This temperature is a factor of 10 below the Doppler-cooling limit and corresponds to an rms velocity within a factor of two of the lowest realizable rms velocity (~3.5v rec) in 3D optical molasses. Realization of such low atom temperatures, up to now only accessible with evaporative cooling techniques, is an important precursor to producing a degenerate Fermi gas of K-40 atoms.