Dr Peter Juhasz

Abstract:

We report measurements of the Bose-Einstein condensate critical temperature shift due to dipolar interactions, employing samples of ultracold erbium atoms which feature significant (magnetic) dipole-dipole interactions in addition to tunable contact interactions. Using a highly prolate harmonic trapping potential, we observe a clear dependence of the critical temperature on the orientation of the dipoles relative to the trap axis. Our results are in good agreement with mean-field theory for a range of contact interaction strengths. This work creates an opportunity for further investigations into beyond-mean-field effects and the finite-temperature phase diagram in the more strongly dipolar regime where supersolid and droplet states emerge. Published by the American Physical Society 2025

Abstract:

Ultracold gases of highly magnetic lanthanide atoms have enabled the realization of dipolar quantum droplets and supersolids. However, future studies could be limited by the achievable atom numbers and hindered by high three-body loss rates. Here we study density-dependent atom loss in an ultracold gas of ¹⁶⁶Er for magnetic fields below 4 G, identifying six previously unreported, strongly temperature-dependent features. We find that their positions and widths show a linear temperature dependence up to at least 15 µK. In addition, we observe a weak, polarization-dependent shift of the loss features with the intensity of the light used to optically trap the atoms. This detailed knowledge of the loss landscape allows us to optimize the production of dipolar Bose-Einstein condensates with more than 2 × 10⁵ atoms and points towards optimal strategies for the study of large-atom-number dipolar gases in the droplet and supersolid regimes.

Abstract:

Homogeneous quantum gases open up new possibilities for studying many-body phenomena and have now been realized for a variety of systems. For gases with short-range interactions the way to make the cloud homogeneous is, predictably, to trap it in an ideal (homogeneous) box potential. We show that creating a close to homogeneous dipolar gas in the roton regime, when long-range interactions are important, actually requires trapping particles in soft-walled (inhomogeneous) box-like potentials. In particular, we numerically explore a dipolar gas confined in a pancake trap which is harmonic along the polarization axis and a cylindrically symmetric power-law potential rp radially. We find that intermediate p's maximize the proportion of the sample that can be brought close to the critical density required to reach the roton regime, whereas higher p's trigger density oscillations near the wall even when the bulk of the system is not in the roton regime. We characterize how the optimum density distribution depends on the shape of the trapping potential and find it is controlled by the trap wall steepness.