Degenerate quantum gases of strontium

TL;DR

This paper reviews the development of degenerate quantum gases of strontium, highlighting laser cooling, evaporation, and their applications in studying optical Feshbach resonances, optical lattices, and molecule formation.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of creating and manipulating quantum degenerate gases of strontium, emphasizing new experimental techniques and applications.

Findings

Successful creation of Bose-Einstein condensates of strontium

Observation of degenerate Fermi gases of strontium isotopes

Implementation of optical Feshbach resonances and molecule formation

Abstract

Degenerate quantum gases of alkaline-earth-like elements open new opportunities in research areas ranging from molecular physics to the study of strongly correlated systems. These experiments exploit the rich electronic structure of these elements, which is markedly different from the one of other species for which quantum degeneracy has been attained. Specifically, alkaline-earth-like atoms, such as strontium, feature metastable triplet states, narrow intercombination lines, and a non-magnetic, closed-shell ground state. This review covers the creation of quantum degenerate gases of strontium and the first experiments performed with this new system. It focuses on laser-cooling and evaporation schemes, which enable the creation of Bose-Einstein condensates and degenerate Fermi gases of all strontium isotopes, and shows how they are used for the investigation of optical Feshbach resonances, the study of degenerate gases loaded into an optical lattice, as well as the coherent creation of Sr_2 molecules.