Experimental realization of two-dimensional single-layer ultracold gases of ^(87)Rb in an accordion lattice

We experimentally realize two-dimensional(2D) single-layer ultracold gases of ^(87)Rb by dynamically tuning the periodicity of a standing wave, known as accordion lattice. In order to load ^(87)Rb Bose-Einstein condensate into single dark fringe node of the blue detuning optical lattice, we reduce the lattice periodicity from 26.7 μm to 3.5 μm with the help of an acousto-optic deflector(AOD) to compress the three-dimensional BEC adiabatically into a flat and uniform quasi-2D single-layer. We describe the experimental procedure of the atoms loading into the accordion lattice in detail and present the characteristics of the quasi-2D ultracold gases. This setup provides an important platform for studying in-and out-of equilibrium physics, phase transition and 2D topological matter.

Superfluidity of Bose Einstein condensates in ultracold atomic gases

Liquid helium 4 had been the only bosonic superfluid available in experiments for a long time. This situation was changed in 1995, when a new superfluid was born with the realization of the Bose-Einstein condensation in ultracold atomic gases. The liquid helium 4 is strongly interacting and has no spin; there is almost no way to change its parameters, such as interaction strength and density. The new superfluid, Bose-Einstein condensate （BEC）, offers various advantages over liquid helium. On the one hand, BEC is weakly interacting and has spin degrees of freedom. On the other hand, it is convenient to tune almost all the parameters of a BEC, for example, the kinetic energy by spin--orbit coupling, the density by the external potential, and the interaction by Feshbach resonance. Great efforts have been devoted to studying these new aspects, and the results have greatly enriched our understanding of superfluidity. Here we review these developments by focusing on the stability and critical velocity of various superfluids. The BEC systems considered include a uniform superfluid in free space, a superfluid with its density periodically modulated, a superfluid with artificially engineered spinorbit coupling, and a superfluid of pure spin current. Due to the weak interaction, these BEC systems can be well described by the mean-field Gross-Pitaevskii theory and their superfluidity, in particular critical velocities, can be examined with the aid of Bogoliubov excitations. Experimental proposals to observe these new aspects of superfluidity are discussed.

Signature of Critical Point in Momentum Profile of Trapped Ultracold Bose Gases

We present a new method to identify the critical point for the Bose-Einstein condensation （BEC） of a trapped Bose gas. We calculate the momentum distribution of an interacting Bose gas near the critical temperature, and find that it deviates significantly from the Gaussian profile as the temperature approaches the critical point. More importantly, the standard deviation between the calculated momentum spectrum and the Gaussian profile at the same temperature shows a turning point at the critical point, which can be used to determine the critical temperature. These predictions are also confirmed by our BEC experiment for magnetically trapped ST Rb gases.

Experimental Observation of Spin-Exchange in Ultracold Fermi Gases

We experimentally study the spin exchange collision in ultracold 40K Fermi gases. The quadratic Zeeman shift, trap potential and temperature of atomic cloud will influence on the spin changing dynamics. Dependences of the spin components populations on the external bias magnetic field, the optical trap depth and the temperature of atomic cloud are experimentally investigated. The spin exchange from the initial states to the final state are observed for different initial states. This work shows an interesting process of reaching equilibrium by redistribution among the spin states with the spin exchange collision in an ultracold large-spin Fermi gas.

Quantum States of Interacting Atoms in Quasi-One-Dimensional Ultracold Trapped Gases

We theoretically investigate the quantum states of a Hamiltonian model for quasi-one-dimensional ultracold trapped gases. From the ansatz given by the numerical solution of the Schrödinger equation of the system, we develop a scattering potential functional form and an approximate solution for the analytical approach of the model. We obtain the set of approximate eigenstates and eigenenergies that can be used in future improvements on the study of atomic scattering in low dimensional ultracold gases. We also show that there is a parity inversion of the ground state of the model as the interaction strength increases.

Magnetic field regression using artificial neural networks for cold atom experiments

Accurately measuring magnetic fields is essential for magnetic-field sensitive experiments in areas like atomic,molecular,and optical physics,condensed matter experiments,and other areas.However,since many experiments are often conducted in an isolated environment that is inaccessible to experimentalists,it can be challenging to accurately determine the magnetic field at the target location.Here,we propose an efficient method for detecting magnetic fields with the assistance of an artificial neural network(NN).Instead of measuring the magnetic field directly at the desired location,we detect fields at several surrounding positions,and a trained NN can accurately predict the magnetic field at the target location.After training,we achieve a below 0.3%relative prediction error of magnetic field magnitude at the center of the vacuum chamber,and successfully apply this method to our erbium quantum gas apparatus for accurate calibration of magnetic field and long-term monitoring of environmental stray magnetic field.The demonstrated approach significantly simplifies the process of determining magnetic fields in isolated environments and can be applied to various research fields across a wide range of magnetic field magnitudes.

High efficient Raman sideband cooling and strong three-body recombination of atoms

We report a highly efficient three-dimensional degenerated Raman sideband cooling(3D dRSC)that enhances the loading of a magnetically levitated optical dipole trap,and observe the strong atom loss due to the three-body recombination.The 3D dRSC is implemented to obtain 5×10^(7)Cs atoms with the temperature of~480 nK.The cold temperature enables 1.8×10^(7)atoms loaded into a crossed dipole trap with an optimized excessive levitation magnetic gradient.Compared to the loading of atoms from a bare magneto-optical trap or the gray-molasses cooling,there is a significant increase in the number of atoms loaded into the optical dipole trap.We derive for the three-body recombination coefficient of L_(3)=7.73×10^(-25)cm^(6)/s by analyzing the strong atom loss at a large scattering length of 1418 Bohr radius,and discover the transition from the strong three-body loss to the dominant one-body loss.Our result indicates that the lifetime of atoms in the optical dipole trap is finally decided by the one-body loss after the initial strong three-body loss.

Dynamics of bubble-shaped Bose-Einstein condensates on two-dimensional cross-section in micro-gravity environment

We investigated the dynamic evolution and interference phenomena of bubble-shaped Bose-Einstein condensates achievable in a micro-gravity environment.Using numerical solutions of the Gross-Pitaevskii equation describing the dynamic evolution of the bubble-shaped Bose-Einstein condensates,we plotted the evolution of the wave function density distribution on its two-dimensional(2D)cross-section and analysed the resulting patterns.We found that changes in the strength of atomic interactions and initial momentum can affect the dynamic evolution of the bubble-shaped Bose-Einstein condensates and their interference fringes.Notably,we have observed that when the initial momentum is sufficiently high,the thickness of the bubble-shaped Bose-Einstein condensate undergoes a counterintuitive thinning,which is a counterintuitive result that requires further investigation.Our findings are poised to advance our comprehension of the physical essence of bubble-shaped Bose-Einstein condensates and to facilitate the development of relevant experiments in microgravity environments.

Quantum degenerate Bose–Fermi atomic gas mixture of 23Na and 40K

We report a compact experimental setup for producing a quantum degenerate mixture of Bose23Na and Fermi40K gases. The atoms are collected in dual dark magneto–optical traps(MOT) with species timesharing loading to reduce the light-induced loss, and then further cooled using the gray molasses technique on the D2line for23Na and D1line for40K. The microwave evaporation cooling is used to cool23Na in |F = 2, mF= 2〉 in an optically plugged magnetic trap, meanwhile,40K in |F = 9/2, mF= 9/2〉 is sympathetically cooled. Then the mixture is loaded into a large volume optical dipole trap where23Na atoms are immediately transferred to |1, 1〉 for further effective cooling to avoid the strong three-body loss between23Na atoms in |2, 2〉 and40K atoms in |9/2, 9/2〉. At the end of the evaporation in optical trap, a degenerate Fermi gas of40K with 1.9 × 10^(5) atoms at T/TF= 0.5 in the |9/2, 9/2〉 hyperfine state coexists with a Bose–Einstein condensate(BEC) of23Na with 8 × 10^(4) atoms in the |1, 1〉 hyperfine state at 300 n K. We also can produce the two species mixture with the tunable population imbalance by adjusting the 23Na magneto–optical trap loading time.

Production of dual species Bose–Einstein condensates of ^(39)K and ^(87)Rb

We report the production of^(39) K and^(87) Rb Bose–Einstein condensates(BECs) in the lowest hyperfine states |F =1, m_(F) = 1 simultaneously. We collect atoms in bright/dark magneto-optical traps(MOTs) of^(39) K/^(87) Rb to overcome the light-assisted losses of^(39) K atoms. Gray molasses cooling on the D1 line of the^(39) K is used to effectively increase the phase density, which improves the loading efficiency of^(39) K into the quadrupole magnetic trap. Simultaneously, the normal molasses is employed for^(87) Rb. After the microwave evaporation cooling on^(87) Rb in the optically plugged magnetic trap,the atoms mixture is transferred to a crossed optical dipole trap, where the collisional properties of the two species in different combinations of the hyperfine states are studied. The dual species BECs of^(39) K and^(87) Rb are obtained by further evaporative cooling in an optical dipole trap at a magnetic field of 372.6 G with the background repulsive interspecies scattering length a_(KRb)= 34 a_(0)(a_(0) is the Bohr radius) and the intraspecies scattering length a_K= 20.05 a_(0).

Collective modes of Weyl fermions with repulsive S-wave interaction

We calculate the spin and density susceptibility ofWeyl fermions with repulsive S-wave interaction in ultracold gases.Weyl fermions have a linear dispersion,which is qualitatively different from the parabolic dispersion of conventional materials.We find that there are different collective modes for the different strengths of repulsive interaction by solving the poles equations of the susceptibility in the random-phase approximation.In the long-wavelength limit,the sound velocity and the energy gaps vary with the different strengths of the interaction in the zero sound mode and the gapped modes,respectively.The particle-hole continuum is obtained as well,where the imaginary part of the susceptibility is nonzero.

Interaction-induced topological transition in spin-orbit coupled ultracold bosons

Recent experiments in ultracold atoms have reported the realization of quantum anomalous Hall phases in spin-orbit coupled systems.Motivated by such advances,we investigate spin-orbit coupled Bose-Bose mixtures in a two-dimensional square optical Raman lattice.Complete phase diagrams are obtained via a nonperturbative real-space bosonic dynamical mean-field theory.Various quantum phases are predicted,including Mott phases with z-ferromagnetic,xy-antiferromagnetic and vortex textures,and superfluid phases with the exotic spin orders,induced by the competition between the lattice hopping and spin-orbit coupling.To explain the underlying physics in the Mott regime,an efective Hamiltonian is derived based on second-order perturbation theory,where pseudospin order stems from the interplay of efective Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya superexchange and Heisenberg interactions.In the presence of the Zeeman field,the competition of strong interaction and Zeeman energy facilitates a topological phase,which is confirmed both by the nontrivial topological Bott index and spectral function with topological edge states.Our work indicates that spin-orbit coupling can induce rich non-Abelian topological physics in strongly correlated ultracold atomic systems.

Analytic calculation of high-order corrections to quantum phase transitions of ultracold Bose gases in bipartite superlattices

We clarify some technical issues in the present generalized effective-potential Landau theory （GEPLT） to make the GEPLT more consistent and complete. Utilizing this clarified GEPLT, we analytically study the quantum phase transitions of ultracold Bose gases in bipartite superlattices at zero temper- ature. The corresponding quantum phase boundaries are analytically calculated up to the third-order hopping, which are in excellent agreement with the quantum Monte Carlo （QMC） simulations.

Analytical approach to quantum phase transitions of ultracold Bose gases in bipartite optical lattices using the generalized Green＇s function method

In order to investigate the quantum phase transitions and the time-of-flight absorption pictures analyt- ically in a systematic way for ultracold Bose gases in bipartite optical lattices, we present a generalized Green＇s function method. Utilizing this method, we study the quantum phase transitions of ultracold Bose gases in two types of bipartite optical lattices, i.e., a hexagonal lattice with normal Bose-Hubbard interaction and a d-dimensional hypercubic optical lattice with extended Bose-Hubbard interaction. Furthermore, the time-of-flight absorption pictures of ultracold Bose gases in these two types of lat- tices are also calculated analytically. In hexagonal lattice, the time-of-flight interference patterns of ultracold Bose gases obtained by our analytical method are in good qualitative agreement with the exDerimental results of Soltan-Panahi, et al. [Nat. Phys. 7, 434 （2011）]. In square optical lattice, the emergence of peaks at（±π/a,±π/a） in the time-of-flight absorption pictures, which is believed to bea sort of evidence of the existence of a supersolid phase, is clearly seen when the system enters the compressible phase from charge-density-wave phase.

An experimental approach for investigating many-body phenomena in Rydberg-interacting quantum systems

Recent developments in the study of ultracold Rydberg gases demand an adwanced level of experimental sophistication, in which high atomic and optical densities must be combined with excellent control of external fields and sensitive Rydberg atom detection. We describe a tailored experimental system used to produce and study Rydberg-interacting atoms excited from dense ultracold atomic gases. The experiment has been optimized for fast duty cycles using a high flux cold atom source and a three beam optical dipole trap. The latter enables tuning of the atomic density and temperature over several orders of magnitude, all the way to the Bose--Einstein condensation transition. An elec- trode structure surrounding the atoms allows for precise control over electric fields and single-particle sensitive field ionization detection of Rydberg atoms. We review two experiments which highlight the influence of strong Rydberg---Rydberg interactions on different many-body systems. First, the Rydberg blockade effect is used to pre-structure an atomic gas prior to its spontaneous evolution into an ultracold plasma. Second, hybrid states of photons and atoms called dark-state polaritons are studied. By looking at the statistical distribution of Rydberg excited atoms we reveal correlations between dark-state polaritons. These experiments will ultimately provide a deeper understanding of many-body phenomena in strongly-interacting regimes, including the study of strongly-coupled plasmas and interfaces between atoms and light at the quantum level.