Dipolar Relaxation in an ultra-cold Gas of magnetically trapped chromium atoms
S. Hensler, J. Werner, A. Griesmaier, P. O. Schmidt, A. Goerlitz, T. Pfau, S. Giovanazzi, K. Rzazewski
Abstract
We have investigated both theoretically and experimentally dipolar relaxation in a gas of magnetically trapped chromium atoms. We have found that the large magnetic moment of 6
μ
B
results in an event rate coefficient for dipolar relaxation processes of up to
3.2⋅
10
−11
cm
3
s
−1
at a magnetic field of 44 G. We present a theoretical model based on pure dipolar coupling, which predicts dipolar relaxation rates in agreement with our experimental observations. This very general approach can be applied to a large variety of dipolar gases.