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Efficient demagnetization cooling of atoms and its limits
Demagnetization cooling relies on spin-orbit coupling that brings motional and spin degrees of freedom into thermal equilibrium. In the case of a gas, one has the advantage that the spin degree of freedom can be cooled very efficiently using optical pumping. We investigate demagnetization cooling of a chromium gas in a deep optical dipole trap over a large temperature range and reach high densities up to 5×10^19 m^−3. We study the loss mechanism under such extreme conditions and identify excited-state collisions as the main limiting process. We discuss that in some systems demagnetization cooling has a realistic potential of reaching degeneracy by optical cooling only.
@article{effdmg14, title = {Efficient demagnetization cooling of atoms and its limits}, journal = {Physical Review A}, abstract = {Demagnetization cooling relies on spin-orbit coupling that brings motional and spin degrees of freedom into thermal equilibrium. In the case of a gas, one has the advantage that the spin degree of freedom can be cooled very efficiently using optical pumping. We investigate demagnetization cooling of a chromium gas in a deep optical dipole trap over a large temperature range and reach high densities up to 5×10^19 m^−3. We study the loss mechanism under such extreme conditions and identify excited-state collisions as the main limiting process. We discuss that in some systems demagnetization cooling has a realistic potential of reaching degeneracy by optical cooling only.}, volume = {89}, pages = {043417}, publisher = {American Physical Society (APS)}, month = apr, year = {2014}, slug = {effdmg14}, author = {Volchkov, Valentin and R{\"u}hrig, Jahn and Pfau, Tilman and Griesmaier, Axel}, month_numeric = {4} }
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