A Large Atom Number Metastable Helium Bose-Einstein Condensate

We have produced a Bose-Einstein condensate of metastable helium (4He*) containing over 1.5x10^7 atoms, which is a factor of 25 higher than previously achieved. The improved starting conditions for evaporative cooling are obtained by applying one-dimensional Doppler cooling inside a magnetic trap. The same technique is successfully used to cool the spin-polarized fermionic isotope (3He*), for which thermalizing collisions are highly suppressed. Our detection techniques include absorption imaging, time-of-flight measurements on a microchannel plate detector and ion counting to monitor the formation and decay of the condensate.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures (changed content

Quantum dynamics of the Li+HF-->H+LiF reaction at ultralow temperatures

Quantum mechanical calculations are reported for the Li+HF(v=0,1,j=0)-->H+LiF(v',j') bimolecular scattering process at low and ultralow temperatures. Calculations have been performed for zero total angular momentum using a recent high accuracy potential energy surface for the X 2A' electronic ground state. For Li+HF(v=0,j=0), the reaction is dominated by resonances due to the decay of metastable states of the Li...F-H van der Waals complex. Assignment of these resonances has been carried out by calculating the eigenenergies of the quasibound states. We also find that while chemical reactivity is greatly enhanced by vibrational excitation the resonances get mostly washed out in the reaction of vibrationally excited HF with Li atoms. In addition, we find that at low energies, the reaction is significantly suppressed due to the formation of rather deeply bound van der Waals complexes and the less efficient tunneling of the relatively heavy fluorine atom.Comment: 24 pages, 8 figures, 1 table, submitted to J. Chem. Phy

A simple and surprisingly accurate approach to the chemical bond obtained from dimensional scaling

We present a new dimensional scaling transformation of the Schrodinger equation for the two electron bond. This yields, for the first time, a good description of the two electron bond via D-scaling. There also emerges, in the large-D limit, an intuitively appealing semiclassical picture, akin to a molecular model proposed by Niels Bohr in 1913. In this limit, the electrons are confined to specific orbits in the scaled space, yet the uncertainty principle is maintained because the scaling leaves invariant the position-momentum commutator. A first-order perturbation correction, proportional to 1/D, substantially improves the agreement with the exact ground state potential energy curve. The present treatment is very simple mathematically, yet provides a strikingly accurate description of the potential energy curves for the lowest singlet, triplet and excited states of H_2. We find the modified D-scaling method also gives good results for other molecules. It can be combined advantageously with Hartree-Fock and other conventional methods.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures, to appear in Phys. Rev. Letter

Collisional Properties of Cold Spin-Polarized Metastable Neon Atoms

We measure the rates of elastic and inelastic two-body collisions of cold spin-polarized neon atoms in the metastable 3P2 state for 20^Ne and 22^Ne in a magnetic trap. From particle loss, we determine the loss parameter of inelastic collisions beta=6.5(18)x10^{-12} cm^3s^{-1} for 20^Ne and beta=1.2(3)x10^{-11}cm^3{s}^{-1} for 22^Ne. These losses are caused by ionizing (i.e. Penning) collisions %to more than and occur less frequently than for unpolarized atoms. This proves the suppression of Penning ionization due to spin-polarization. From cross-dimensional relaxation measurements, we obtain elastic scattering lengths of a=-180(40) a_0 for 20^Ne and a=+150(+80/-50) a_0 for 22^Ne, where a_0=0.0529 nm.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

Two and three electrons in a quantum dot: 1/|J| - expansion

We consider systems of two and three electrons in a two-dimensional parabolic quantum dot. A magnetic field is applied perpendicularly to the electron plane of motion. We show that the energy levels corresponding to states with high angular momentum, J, and a low number of vibrational quanta may be systematically computed as power series in 1/|J|. These states are relevant in the high-B limit.Comment: LaTeX, 15 pages,6 postscript figure

A Laser System for the Spectroscopy of Highly-Charged Bismuth Ions

We present and characterize a laser system for the spectroscopy on highly-charged ^209Bi^82+ ions at a wavelength of 243.87 nm. For absolute frequency stabilization, the laser system is locked to a near-infra-red laser stabilized to a rubidium transition line using a transfer cavity based locking scheme. Tuning of the output frequency with high precision is achieved via a tunable rf offset lock. A sample-and-hold technique gives an extended tuning range of several THz in the UV. This scheme is universally applicable to the stabilization of laser systems at wavelengths not directly accessible to atomic or molecular resonances. We determine the frequency accuracy of the laser system using Doppler-free absorption spectroscopy of Te_2 vapour at 488 nm. Scaled to the target wavelength of 244 nm, we achieve a frequency uncertainty of \sigma_{244nm} = 6.14 MHz (one standard deviation) over six days of operation.Comment: Contribution to the special issue on "Trapped Ions" in "Applied Physics B

Purely-long-range bound states of He(2s3S)+(2s ^3S)+He(2p3P)(2p ^3P)

We predict the presence and positions of purely-long-range bound states of $^4$He$(2s ^3S)+{}^4$He$(2p ^3P)$ near the $2s ^3S_1+2p ^3P_{0,1}$ atomic limits. The results of the full multichannel and approximate models are compared, and we assess the sensitivity of the bound states to atomic parameters characterizing the potentials. Photoassociation to these purely-long-range molecular bound states may improve the knowledge of the scattering length associated with the collisions of two ultracold spin-polarized $^4$He$(2s ^3S)$ atoms, which is important for studies of Bose-Einstein condensates.Comment: 16 pages, 5 figure

A high-precision rf trap with minimized micromotion for an In+ multiple-ion clock

We present an experiment to characterize our new linear ion trap designed for the operation of a many-ion optical clock using 115-In^+ as clock ions. For the characterization of the trap as well as the sympathetic cooling of the clock ions we use 172-Yb^+. The trap design has been derived from finite element method (FEM) calculations and a first prototype based on glass-reinforced thermoset laminates was built. This paper details on the trap manufacturing process and micromotion measurement. Excess micromotion is measured using photon-correlation spectroscopy with a resolution of 1.1nm in motional amplitude, and residual axial rf fields in this trap are compared to FEM calculations. With this method, we demonstrate a sensitivity to systematic clock shifts due to excess micromotion of |({\Delta}{\nu}/{\nu})| = 8.5x10^-20. Based on the measurement of axial rf fields of our trap, we estimate a number of twelve ions that can be stored per trapping segment and used as an optical frequency standard with a fractional inaccuracy of \leq 1x10^-18 due to micromotion.Comment: 19 pages with 14 picture

Linear Paul trap design for an optical clock with Coulomb crystals

We report on the design of a segmented linear Paul trap for optical clock applications using trapped ion Coulomb crystals. For an optical clock with an improved short-term stability and a fractional frequency uncertainty of 10^-18, we propose 115In+ ions sympathetically cooled by 172Yb+. We discuss the systematic frequency shifts of such a frequency standard. In particular, we elaborate on high precision calculations of the electric radiofrequency field of the ion trap using the finite element method. These calculations are used to find a scalable design with minimized excess micromotion of the ions at a level at which the corresponding second- order Doppler shift contributes less than 10^-18 to the relative uncertainty of the frequency standard

Slowing and cooling molecules and neutral atoms by time-varying electric field gradients

A method of slowing, accelerating, cooling, and bunching molecules and neutral atoms using time-varying electric field gradients is demonstrated with cesium atoms in a fountain. The effects are measured and found to be in agreement with calculation. Time-varying electric field gradient slowing and cooling is applicable to atoms that have large dipole polarizabilities, including atoms that are not amenable to laser slowing and cooling, to Rydberg atoms, and to molecules, especially polar molecules with large electric dipole moments. The possible applications of this method include slowing and cooling thermal beams of atoms and molecules, launching cold atoms from a trap into a fountain, and measuring atomic dipole polarizabilities.Comment: 13 pages, 10 figures. Scheduled for publication in Nov. 1 Phys. Rev.