Degenerate Fermi Gases of Ytterbium

TL;DR

This paper reports the successful creation of a quantum degenerate Fermi gas of ytterbium-173 atoms through evaporative cooling, demonstrating efficient cooling and the effects of Fermi degeneracy.

Contribution

First demonstration of quantum degeneracy in ytterbium-173 fermionic atoms via evaporative cooling in an optical trap.

Findings

Achieved cooling below 0.6 Fermi temperature

Observed a decrease in evaporation efficiency due to Fermi degeneracy

Measured a sufficiently large elastic collision rate for effective evaporation

Abstract

An evaporative cooling was performed to cool the fermionic 173Yb atoms in a crossed optical dipole trap. The elastic collision rate, which is important for the evaporation, turns out to be large enough from our study. This large collision rate leads to efficient evaporation and we have successfully cooled the atoms below 0.6 of the Fermi temperature, that is to say, to a quantum degenerate regime. In this regime, a plunge of evaporation efficiency is observed as the result of the Fermi degeneracy.