Ultracold Strontium

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Strontium has recently become the focus of intense work by experimental and theoretical atomic physics groups studying laser cooling, optical frequency standards, cold collisions, and quantum degenerate gases. This experimental research program focuses on determining collisional properties and ground state potentials that will form the foundation for continued progress in the application of strontium, such as scattering lengths for optimizing evaporative cooling or collisional clock shifts, or long range potential parameters to compare with atomic structure calculations. The first experiments will be two-color photoassociative spectroscopy of the highest-lying levels of the diatomic strontium molecular ground-state potential. Later experiments will take advantage of the information learned to explore optically induced Feshbach resonances and create quantum degenerate gases. Strontium Bose-Einstein condensation will not simply demonstrate another condensed atom. Optically induced Feshbach resonances will allow flexible manipulation of atom-atom interactions on a more rapid time scale or finer spatial scale than is possible with magnetic Feshbach resonances. The lack of hyperfine structure in bosonic isotopes may make condensates insensitive to environmental perturbations and better suited for atom-optic and interferometric applications. The broader impact of the program involves education of students as well as efforts in diversity.