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 7µ_B and 10µ_Bfor 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

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

Now in Nature Physics! Supersolids are fluid and solid at the same time. In jointly collaboration work, together with Thierry Giamarchi, theoretical physicist from the University of Geneva, we have for the first time investigated what happens when such a state is brought out of balance.

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Philipp and Gianmaria are now Doctors of Philosophy

Philipp and Gianmaria held their defenses for their PhD thesis and are now officially Doctors of Philosophy. Congratulations and we wish you all the best for your future!

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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.

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ESQ Postdoc Fellowship awarded to Matthew

Matt has been awarded a postdoctoral fellowship from the Erwin Schrödinger Center for Quantum Science and Technology (ESQ). As an ESQ postdoc, Matt will study dipolar quantum mixtures of erbium and dysprosium atoms in the RARE lab of Francesca Ferlaino.

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Sandra is now master of science!

On the 25/02/2020, Sandra held her defense for her master thesis and is now officially a Master of Science! Congratulations!

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Lauritz Klaus joins the Er-Dy Lab

After completing the Master's degree in Heidelberg under the supervision of Prof. Weidemüller in the Li-Cs mixture experiment, Lauritz joined our team in February as a PhD student in the Er-Dy dipolar quantum mixture Lab. Welcome to Innsbruck, Lauritz!

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