Development of an apparatus for cooling 6Li-87Rb Fermi-Bose mixtures in a light-assisted magnetic trap

TL;DR

This paper presents an experimental setup for producing ultracold 6Li and 87Rb gases, aiming to improve cooling efficiency and reach deeper Fermi degeneracy through optimized sympathetic cooling in a light-assisted magnetic trap.

Contribution

It introduces a novel apparatus combining Zeeman slowers, magneto-optical traps, and a light-assisted magnetic trap for efficient cooling of 6Li-87Rb mixtures.

Findings

Potential to reach 10^-3 T_F temperature range

Enhanced heat capacity matching improves sympathetic cooling

Successful deceleration and trapping of both species

Abstract

We describe an experimental setup designed to produce ultracold trapped gas clouds of fermionic 6Li and bosonic 87Rb. This combination of alkali metals has the potential to reach deeper Fermi degeneracy with respect to other mixtures since it allows for improved heat capacity matching which optimizes sympathetic cooling efficiency. Atomic beams of the two species are independently produced and then decelerated by Zeeman slowers. The slowed atoms are collected into a magneto-optical trap and then transferred into a quadrupole magnetic trap. An ultracold Fermi gas with temperature in the 10^-3 T_F range should be attainable through selective confinement of the two species via a properly detuned laser beam focused in the center of the magnetic trap.