Berlin 2001 – scientific programme

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Q: Quantenoptik

Q 17: Poster: Cooling and Trapping

Q 17.31: Poster

Wednesday, April 4, 2001, 12:30–15:00, AT2

Interaction of Ultracold Metastable Neon Atoms — •Martin Zinner, Peter Spoden, Gerhard Birkl, and Wolfgang Ertmer — Institut für Quantenoptik, Universität Hannover, Welfengarten 1, 30167 Hannover, Germany

The understanding of the interaction of ultracold atoms will be substantially extended by the experimental study of ultracold non-alkaline systems. Due to the special internal structure and the high internal energy, metastable noble gases will play a crucial role.

The objective of our work is to attain a detailled study of the interactions in a gas of ultracold metastable neon atoms. Ensembles of high phase space density and, if possible, Bose condensates shall be achieved. The elementary pair interaction as well as the collective interactions are to be characterized. Of special interest is Penning ionization as it is the main loss process in dense metastable atom traps. The degree of its suppression in a spin polarized gas will strongly affect the feasibility of a quantum-degenerate system of metastable atoms.

We report on the progress of the experiment and present first experimental results on the rates of Penning ionization.