Dipolar Bose–Einstein condensation of 168Er and anisotropic expansion dynamics

Abstract

We report on the realization of Bose–Einstein condensation (BEC) of 168Er atoms in a crossed optical dipole trap. A magneto-optical trap is realized with just one laser driving the narrow-line transition which increases the phase space density and facilitates the evaporative cooling. A pure BEC with 3 × 104 atoms is achieved by forced evaporative cooling. The complex Feshbach resonance and anisotropic expansion of 168Er are investigated by the loss spectroscopy and controlling the rotating dipoles.

Keywords

• Lanthanide atoms
• Bose–Einstein condensation
• Feshbach resonance
• Anisotropic expansion