Factor of 1000 suppression of the depolarization rate in ultracold thulium collisions

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that by tuning a magnetic field, depolarization collisions in ultracold thulium atoms can be suppressed by a factor of 1000, enabling better use of Zeeman states in quantum simulations.

Contribution

The study shows a method to drastically reduce depolarization in ultracold thulium collisions, facilitating advanced quantum simulation applications.

Findings

Depolarization rate suppressed by a factor of 1000

Magnetic field tuning effectively controls collisional depolarization

Enhancement of Zeeman manifold utility in quantum simulations

Abstract

Lanthanides are nowadays extensively used to investigate the properties of strongly correlated matter. Nevertheless, exploiting the Zeeman manifold of a lanthanide atom ground state is challenging due to the unavoidable presence of depolarization collisions. Here we demonstrate that in the case of the thulium atom, it is possible to suppress this depolarization by a factor of 1000 with a carefully tuned magnetic field thus opening the way for the efficient use of the Zeeman manifold in quantum simulations.