Quantum degenerate dipolar Fermi gas

TL;DR

This paper reports the creation of the first quantum degenerate dipolar Fermi gas using dysprosium atoms, enabling new studies of strongly correlated quantum phenomena and liquid crystal analogs in ultracold atomic systems.

Contribution

It demonstrates the realization of a quantum degenerate dipolar Fermi gas with magnetic dysprosium atoms, a novel achievement in ultracold atomic physics.

Findings

Achieved quantum degeneracy with 161Dy atoms at T/TF=0.2

Produced a nearly quantum degenerate Bose-Fermi mixture

Opened new avenues for studying strongly correlated quantum matter

Abstract

The interplay between crystallinity and superfluidity is of great fundamental and technological interest in condensed matter settings. In particular, electronic quantum liquid crystallinity arises in the non-Fermi liquid, pseudogap regime neighboring a cuprate's unconventional superconducting phase. While the techniques of ultracold atomic physics and quantum optics have enabled explorations of the strongly correlated, many-body physics inherent in, e.g., the Hubbard model, lacking has been the ability to create a quantum degenerate Fermi gas with interparticle interactions---such as the strong dipole-dipole interaction---capable of inducing analogs to electronic quantum liquid crystals. We report the first quantum degenerate dipolar Fermi gas, the realization of which opens a new frontier for exploring strongly correlated physics and, in particular, the quantum melting of smectics in the pristine environment provided by the ultracold atomic physics setting. A quantum degenerate Fermi gas of the most magnetic atom 161Dy is produced by laser cooling to 10 uK before sympathetically cooling with ultracold, bosonic 162Dy. The temperature of the spin-polarized 161Dy is a factor T/TF=0.2 below the Fermi temperature TF=300 nK. The co-trapped 162Dy concomitantly cools to approximately Tc for Bose-Einstein condensation, thus realizing a novel, nearly quantum degenerate dipolar Bose-Fermi gas mixture.