Development of a new Dy quantum gas experiment

Abstract

Since the first realization of Bose-Einstein condensation in an atomic gas at the end of the twentieth century, ultracold atomic gases have become a widely adopted platform for the study of various quantum phenomena. In recent years, attention has increasingly turned to species with large magnetic dipole moments due to the much stronger long-range interactions that these species exhibit in comparison with the more commonly studied alkalis. Dysprosium, with a magnetic moment of about 10IB, is the most magnetic atomic species and therefore has become an attractive platform for studying systems in which the long-range (dipole-dipole) interactions compete with or dominate over the contact interactions. In this thesis I describe the design and optimization of a new dysprosium quantum gas machine. Apart from giving a detailed description of the components of the apparatus and their performance, I describe in detail the characterization and optimization of the "angled slowing" technique which is used to enhance the loading rate of our magneto-optical trap (MOT). I also describe in detail the production and detection of the first Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs) produced using the apparatus. This thesis also contains a detailed description of the development of new control hardware and software which are used in the dysprosium experiment, but can be (and have been) used with other quantum gas experiments. On the hardware side, I discuss the design of high-performance analog voltage control channels which offer advantages over commercially available alternatives. On the software side, I discuss a laboratory control and logging database system which I designed, which both expands the capabilities of our control software and simplifies the storage of and accessibility of lab data.