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BaLi - Trapping Ions in Atoms and Molecules Optically

Fabian Thielemann, Joachim Siemund, and Tobias Schaetz

 

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Introduction

In the past few decades, the fields of ultracold atoms and trapped ions have become important pillars of experimental quantum optics. Recently, the expertise of both fields has been combined in hybrid atom-ion traps, aiming to prepare the atom-ion mixture at the lowest temperatures possible. Reaching the ultracold regime in hybrid setups is a challenging task, as intrinsic micromotion heating effects of conventional radio-frequency (rf) traps limit most experiments. In our experiment in Freiburg, we follow two pathways to overcome these heating effects, allowing us to enter the few-partial wave regime. On the one hand, we choose an atom-ion mixture with high mass imbalance – 6Li atoms and 138Ba+ ions – as comparably heavy ions are subject to less heating. On the other hand, we have developed optical dipole traps for ions, allowing us to probe atom-ion interactions in the complete absence of rf fields. 

     bali_nature                BaLI-Setup

Combining and applying these techniques, we were able to demonstrate atom-ion Feshbach resonances for the very first time.

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