New opportunites for interactions and control with ultracold lanthanides

by M. A. Norcia, F. Ferlaino
Abstract:
Lanthanide atoms have an unusual electron configuration, with a partially filled shell of f orbitals. This leads to a set of characteristic properties that enable enhanced control over ultracold atoms and their interactions: large numbers of optical transitions with widely varying wavelengths and transition strengths, anisotropic interaction properties between atoms and with light, and a large magnetic moment and spin space present in the ground state. These features in turn enable applications ranging from narrow-line laser cooling and spin manipulation to evaporative cooling through universal dipolar scattering, to the observation of a rotonic dispersion relation, self-bound liquid-like droplets stabilized by quantum fluctuations, and supersolid states. In this short review, we describe how the unusual level structure of lanthanide atoms leads to these key features, and provide a brief and necessarily partial overview of experimental progress in this rapidly developing field.
Reference:
New opportunites for interactions and control with ultracold lanthanides,
M. A. Norcia, F. Ferlaino,
arXiv:2108.04491, 2021.
Bibtex Entry:
@article{norcia2021new,
      title = {New opportunites for interactions and control with ultracold lanthanides},
      author = {M. A. Norcia and F. Ferlaino},
      year = {2021},
      month = {Aug},
      abstract = {Lanthanide atoms have an unusual electron configuration, with
        a partially filled shell of f orbitals. This leads to a set of
          characteristic properties that enable enhanced control over ultracold
          atoms and their interactions: large numbers of optical transitions
          with widely varying wavelengths and transition strengths, anisotropic
          interaction properties between atoms and with light, and a large
          magnetic moment and spin space present in the ground state. These
          features in turn enable applications ranging from narrow-line laser
          cooling and spin manipulation to evaporative cooling through universal
          dipolar scattering, to the observation of a rotonic dispersion
          relation, self-bound liquid-like droplets stabilized by quantum
          fluctuations, and supersolid states. In this short review, we describe
          how the unusual level structure of lanthanide atoms leads to these key
          features, and provide a brief and necessarily partial overview of
          experimental progress in this rapidly developing field.},
      eprint = {2108.04491},
      archivePrefix = {arXiv:2108.04491},
      journal = {arXiv:2108.04491},
      primaryClass={cond-mat.quant-gas},
      url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2108.04491},
      arXiv = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2108.04491}
}