Spin gradient demagnetization cooling of ultracold atoms

We demonstrate a new cooling method in which a time-varying magnetic field gradient is applied to an ultracold spin mixture. This enables preparation of isolated spin distributions at positive and negative effective spin temperatures of ±50   pK. The spin system can also be used to cool other degree...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Physical review letters 2011-05, Vol.106 (19), p.195301-195301, Article 195301
Main Authors: Medley, Patrick, Weld, David M, Miyake, Hirokazu, Pritchard, David E, Ketterle, Wolfgang
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
ALKALI METALS
ANGULAR MOMENTUM
CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSICS
COOLING
COUPLING
DEMAGNETIZATION
DISTRIBUTION
ELEMENTS
ENTROPY
MAGNETIC FIELDS
MAGNETIZATION
METALS
PARTICLE PROPERTIES
PHYSICAL PROPERTIES
RUBIDIUM
SPIN
THERMODYNAMIC PROPERTIES
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Summary:We demonstrate a new cooling method in which a time-varying magnetic field gradient is applied to an ultracold spin mixture. This enables preparation of isolated spin distributions at positive and negative effective spin temperatures of ±50   pK. The spin system can also be used to cool other degrees of freedom, and we have used this coupling to cool an apparently equilibrated Mott insulator of rubidium atoms to 350 pK. These are the lowest temperatures ever measured in any system. The entropy of the spin mixture is in the regime where magnetic ordering is expected.
ISSN:0031-9007
1079-7114
DOI:10.1103/PhysRevLett.106.195301