Degenerate Bose-Fermi Mixture of Metastable Atoms

Journal Article · Fri Aug 25 00:00:00 EDT 2006 · Physical Review Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PHYSREVLETT.97.080404· OSTI ID:20860706

McNamara, J M; Jeltes, T; Tychkov, A S; Hogervorst, W; Vassen, W ^[1]

---

1. Laser Centre, Vrije Universiteit, De Boelelaan 1081, 1081 HV Amsterdam (Netherlands)

We report the observation of simultaneous quantum degeneracy in a dilute gaseous Bose-Fermi mixture of metastable atoms. Sympathetic cooling of helium-3 (fermion) by helium-4 (boson), both in the lowest triplet state, allows us to produce ensembles containing more than 10{sup 6} atoms of each isotope at temperatures below 1 {mu}K, and achieve a fermionic degeneracy parameter of T/T{sub F}=0.45. Because of their high internal energy, the detection of individual metastable atoms with subnanosecond time resolution is possible, permitting the study of bosonic and fermionic quantum gases with unprecedented precision. This may lead to metastable helium becoming the mainstay of quantum atom optics.

• OSTI ID: 20860706
• Journal Information: Physical Review Letters, Vol. 97, Issue 8; Other Information: DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.97.080404; (c) 2006 The American Physical Society; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0031-9007
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
ATOMS
BEAM OPTICS
BOSE-EINSTEIN GAS
BOSONS
FERMI GAS
FERMIONS
HELIUM 3
HELIUM 4
MIXTURES
TIME RESOLUTION
TRIPLETS