Buffer gas cooling of carbon atoms

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates the cooling of carbon atoms to cryogenic temperatures using buffer gas cooling, with experimental and simulation results showing rapid temperature reduction to around 10 K, enabling new research opportunities with ultracold carbon atoms.

Contribution

First demonstration of buffer gas cooling of carbon atoms to cryogenic temperatures with combined experimental and simulation validation.

Findings

Carbon atoms cooled to ~10 K within microseconds

Experimental data matches Monte Carlo simulations

Establishes a foundation for ultracold carbon atom research

Abstract

We demonstrate buffer gas cooling of carbon atoms to cryogenic temperatures. By employing pulsed two-photon excitation followed by vacuum ultraviolet fluorescence detection, we measured the arrival time distribution of the ablated carbon atoms to the detection volume at various helium buffer gas densities. The experimental data, corroborated by Monte Carlo simulations, reveal a rapid decrease in the local temperature of the carbon atom gas to approximately 10~K within tens of microseconds. The findings establish a major step towards novel research utilizing cold and ultracold carbon atoms.