Subject：Ultracold Strontium for Clocks, Gravimeters and Many-Body Physics
Speaker：Prof. Florian Schreck
Emcee：Prof. Haibin Wu
Time：2:30pm, 27th Sep, 2018
Place：Science Building A814
Abstract：
Ultracold atoms provide the best frequency references for clocks and are used as test masses in gravimeters. They are also a flexible platform to design well-controlled quantum many-body systems. Our group is exploiting the unique properties of strontium to advance these two research lines.
In the first part of this talk I will describe our attempt to create a continuous atom laser. Such a device would allow the steady-state operation of atomic clocks and gravimeters, thereby elimination a fundamental noise source present in pulsed measurement devices. As an intermediate step to our goal we have created a steady-state sample of ultracold atoms with unity phase-space density.
In the second part I will discuss our effort to create a quantum gas of RbSr ground-state molecules. These molecules have a large electric dipole moment and an unpaired electron, which gives us new interaction control possibilities and is interesting for many-body system design. In order to associate ultracold Rb and Sr atoms into RbSr molecules we intend to use unusual magnetic Feshbach resonances, which we recently discovered in this system.”
About the Speaker:
Florian Schreck’s research group is world leading on strontium quantum gases and their mixtures with alkali atoms (www.strontiumBEC.com). FS has extensive experience with ultracold gases including their use for the study of many-body quantum physics. His group created the first Sr BEC, the first BEC using only laser cooling to remove entropy from the gas, and recently a steady-state Sr sample with unity phase-space density. He intends to use this sample to feed superradiant clocks and continuous atom lasers. His group studies Rb-Sr mixtures and Sr2 molecules, which has led to the identification of paths to ultracold RbSr ground-state molecules. FS did obtain an Austrian START award, a European ERC CoG, a Dutch NWO Vici and is coordinator of the European iqClock Quantum Flagship consortium iqClock (www.iqClock.eu).
