Core-Shell Magneto-Optical Trap for Alkaline-Earth-Metal-Like Atoms

We propose and demonstrate a new magneto-optical trap (MOT) for alkaline-earth-metal-like (AEML) atoms where the narrow $^{1}S_{0}rightarrow$$^{3}P_{1}$ transition and the broad $^{1}S_{0}rightarrow$$^{1}P_{1}$ transition are spatially arranged into a core-shell configuration. Our scheme resolves the main limitations of previously adopted MOT schemes, leading to a significant increase in both the loading rate and the steady state atom number. We apply this scheme to $^{174}$Yb MOT, where we show about a hundred-fold improvement in the loading rate and ten-fold improvement in the steady state atom number compared to reported cases that we know of to date. This technique could be readily extended to other AEML atoms to increase the statistical sensitivity of many different types of precision experiments.

Observation of the universal jump across the Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless transition in two-dimensional Bose gases

The physics in two-dimensional (2D) systems is very different from what we observe in three-dimensional (3D) systems. Thermal fluctuations in 2D systems are enhanced, and they prevent the conventional Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) at non-zero temperatures by destroying the long-range order. However, a phase transition to a superfluid phase is still expected to occur in a 2D system along with an emergence of a quasi-long-range order, explained by the Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless (BKT) mechanism. Within the BKT mechanism, a universal jump of the superfluid density in a 2D Bosonic system was theoretically predicted by Nelson and Kosterlitz, and was first observed in 2D textsuperscript{4}He films by Bishop and Reppy. Recent experiments in trapped ultracold 2D Bose gas systems have shown signatures of the BKT transition, and its superfluidity. However, the universal jump in the superfluid density was not observed in these systems. Here we report the first observation of the universal jump in the superfluid density using an optically trapped ultracold 2D Bose gas. The measured superfluid phase space density at the BKT transition agrees well with the predicted value within our measurement uncertainty. Additionally, we measure the phase fluctuations in our density profiles to show that the BKT transition occurs first, followed by the BEC transition.