Er-Dy Team 2023

Er-Dy Team 2023

Vortices in a dysprosium gas

Vortices in a dysprosium gas

By stirring the magnetic field which polarizes the atoms in a dysprosium condensate, we were able to generate vortices–tiny quantum tornadoes–in a dipolar gas for the first time!

Supersolid in a new dimension

Supersolid in a new dimension

A two-dimensional supersolid system

Phase coherence in out-of-equilibrium supersolid states of ultracold dipolar atoms

Phase coherence in out-of-equilibrium supersolid states of ultracold dipolar atoms

By quenching the contact interaction, it is possible to destroy the phase coherence in a dipolar supersolid. However, the supersolidity is “repaired” when reversing the dephasing process.  

Study of interspecies Feshbach resonances published in PRA

Study of interspecies Feshbach resonances published in PRA

A key step in creating controlled interactions in dipolar quantum mixtures is the characterization of interspecies Feshbach resonances.

First Dipolar Quantum Mixtures!

First Dipolar Quantum Mixtures!

We have created for the first time a dipolar quantum mixture by combining two highly magnetic atomic species, Erbium and Dysprosium.

Double MOT …

Double MOT …

… of cold erbium (yellow) and dysprosium (red) atoms. © IQOQI

Laser setup …

Laser setup …

… for slowing and trapping erbium and dysprosium atoms. © IQOQI

The main vacuum chamber …

The main vacuum chamber …

… where trap and furthermore cool erbium and dysprosium down to degeneracy. © IQOQI

Er-Dy LAB

The Er-Dy LAB focuses on many-body quantum phenomena in a dipolar quantum mixture of two highly magnetic lanthanides, Erbium and Dysprosium.

The designing process of the experimental apparatus started in late 2014 and several concepts have been developed in collaboration with our ERBIUM Team and the Er-Team at Harvard University led by Markus Greiner.

Er-Dy mixtures

In 2018, we produced the first quantum degenerate dipolar mixture of Erbium and Dysprosium!!

This two rare-earth species are highly magnetic with a magnetic moment of 7µB and 10µB for Er and Dy respectively. A crucial aspect is that the have very similar atomic properties such as melting point, mass and the optical spectrum. The Er-Dy LAB is able to either operate on a single species (Er or Dy) or to produce dipolar imbalanced Bose-Bose, Bose-Fermi and Fermi-Fermi Er-Dy mixtures.

A microscope for dipolar atoms

A quantum gas microscope is an optical system that allows to image single atoms in an optical lattice in situ. This conceptually simple, yet technologically demanding technique makes it possible to directly study the interactions between atoms in periodic potentials, a scenario which is only possible to simulate numerically for very limited system sizes. In contrast to other groups, we are aiming to realize such a microscope with atoms featuring a large, permanent magnetic dipole moment. The inter-atomic dipole-dipole interaction adds a new term to the Hamiltonian describing the ensemble, and therefore allows to investigate a whole new class of quantum systems. The behavior of the system will critically depend on the interplay between the different interaction terms, whose magnitude and direction dependence may be tuned experimentally over a wide range. Thus, a large variety of interesting quantum systems can be simulated and investigated.

A full list of the Er-Dy Lab Publications can be found here

Interested in joining us? Check out here.

Lab news
Claudia Politi, a PhD student in the RARE Lab,  has won the first prize for best poster at ICAP 2018 in Barcelona. More than 600 posters were presented during ICAP 2018. The prizes were decided by the Poster Awards Commission of ICAP 2018 presided by Prof. Fritz Haake. Congratulations Claudia!
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Maximilian Sohmen, PhD student in the RARE Lab,  has won the  prize for best poster of  YAO2018. Congratulations! The Young Atom Opticians (YAO) conference is a yearly meeting, organized by and for PhD candidates in the field of atomic, molecular and optical physics. This year it took place in Glasgow
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The magic of Er and Dy: magneto-optical trap with only 5 beams!
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After two months of holidays and travelling, Claudia Politi and Gabriele Natale came back to Innsbruck to start their PhD studies in the RARE and ERBIUM experiment. Welcome back!
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Francesca recieved the Erwin-Schrödiger-Prize from the Austrian Academy of Science (ÖAW)! This annual award is the most prestigeous ÖAW prize for mathematical and natural science and it is given to exceptional researchers working in Austria. Next to Prof. Peter Zoller (1998) and Prof. Rainer Blatt (2006), the award is now
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This week quantum physicist Francesca Ferlaino will receive the Antonio Feltrinelli Giovani Prize in physics. This is the first time the prize, valued at 50,000 Euro, will be awarded to young scientists. It recognizes the achievements of Italian scholars under the age of 40 who have achieved results of outstanding
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Lab Team

Francesca Ferlaino, Univ.-Prof. Dr.

Group Leader / PI

Manfred Mark, Dr.

Senior Scientist /    Research Assistant

Andrea Di Carli, Dr.

Academy Scientist/ Research Assistant

Andrea Litvinov, Dr.

Post Doc

Eva Casotti, MSc.

PhD Student (Er-Dy)

Lauritz Klaus, MSc.

PhD Student (Er-Dy)

Clemens Ulm, MSc.

PhD Student (Er-Dy)