Q. Beaufils

All-Optical Production of Chromium Bose-Einstein Condensates

We report on the production of ^52Cr Bose Einstein Condensates (BEC) with an all-optical method. We first load 5.10^6 metastable chromium atoms in a 1D far-off-resonance optical trap (FORT) from a Magneto Optical Trap (MOT), by combining the use of Radio Frequency (RF) frequency sweeps and depumping towards the ^5S_2 state. The atoms are then pumped to the absolute ground state, and transferred into a crossed FORT in which they are evaporated. The fast loading of the 1D FORT (35 ms 1/e time), and the use of relatively fast evaporative ramps allow us to obtain in 20 s about 15000 atoms in an almost pure condensate.

Feshbach resonance in d -wave collisions

We analyse a narrow Feshbach resonance with ultra-cold chromium atoms colliding in d-wave. The resonance is made possible by dipole-dipole interactions, which couple an incoming

Accumulation of chromium metastable atoms into an optical trap

l=2

Averaging out magnetic forces with fast rf sweeps in an optical trap for metastable chromium atoms

collision channel with a bound molecular state with

Accumulation and thermalization of cold atoms in a finite-depth magnetic trap

l=0

Ultracold collisions in chromium: D-wave Feshbach resonance and rf-assisted molecule association

. We find that three-body losses associated to this resonance increase with temperature, and that the loss feature width as a function of magnetic field also increases linearly with temperature. The analysis of our experimental data shows that the Feshbach coupling is small compared both to the temperature and to the density limited lifetime of the resonant bound molecular state. One consequence is that the three body losse rate is proportionnal to the square of the number of atoms, and that we can directly relate the amplitude of the losses to the Feshbach coupling parameter. We compare our measurement to a calculation of the coupling between the collisionnal channel and the molecular bound state by dipole-dipole interactions, and find a good agreement, with no adjustable parameter. An analysis of the loss lineshape is also performed, which enables to precisely measure the position of the resonance.

rf-induced magnetic degeneracy and dipolar relaxation in a chromium Bose-Einstein Condensate

Abstract.We report the fast accumulation of a large number of metastable 52Cr atoms in a mixed trap, formed by the superposition of a strongly confining optical trap and a quadrupolar magnetic trap. The steady state is reached after about 400 ms, providing a cloud of more than one million metastable atoms at a temperature of about 100 μK, with a peak density of 1018 atoms m-3. We have optimized the loading procedure, and measured the light shift of the 5D4 state by analyzing how the trapped atoms respond to a parametric excitation. We compare this result to a theoretical evaluation based on the available spectroscopic data for chromium atoms.

Radio-frequency-induced ground-state degeneracy in a Bose-Einstein condensate of chromium atoms

We introduce a novel type of time-averaged trap, in which the internal state of the atoms is rapidly modulated to modify magnetic trapping potentials. In our experiment, fast radiofrequency (rf) linear sweeps flip the spin of atoms at a fast rate, which averages out magnetic forces. We use this procedure to optimize the accumulation of metastable chomium atoms into an optical dipole trap from a magneto-optical trap. The potential experienced by the metastable atoms is identical to the bare optical dipole potential, so that this procedure allows for trapping all magnetic sublevels, hence increasing by up to 80 percent the final number of accumulated atoms.

Radio-frequency association of molecules: an assisted Feshbach resonance

We experimentally and theoretically study the continuous accumulation of cold atoms from a magneto-optical trap (MOT) into a finite depth trap, consisting in a magnetic quadrupole trap dressed by a radiofrequency (RF) field. Chromium atoms (52 isotope) in a MOT are continuously optically pumped by the MOT lasers to metastable dark states. In presence of a RF field, the temperature of the metastable atoms that remain magnetically trapped can be as low as 25 microK, with a density of 10^17 atoms.m-3, resulting in an increase of the phase-space density, still limited to 7.10^-6 by inelastic collisions. To investigate the thermalization issues in the truncated trap, we measure the free evaporation rate in the RF-truncated magnetic trap, and deduce the average elastic cross section for atoms in the 5D4 metastable states, equal to 7.0 10^-16m2.

Radio-frequency association of molecules: the dressed state picture

We create Bose-Einstein Condensates of 52Cr atoms using an all-optical procedure [1]. In this contribution, we present the methods that we have developed to combat strong inelastic collisions in a Cr-MOT and reach degeneracy. We use intense and rapid rf sweeps to time-average to zero the magnetic trapping potential experienced by metastable dark states. This allows for the capture of all the magnetic sublevels of the metastable atoms in an optical trap superimposed to the MOT and it induces a reduction of inelastic losses in the mixed “optical+magnetic” trap used prior to the evaporation stage [2].