PTB produces first Bose-Einstein condensate with calcium atoms
The physicist and Nobel Prize winner Wolfgang Ketterle once described it as an "identity crisis" of the atoms: If atoms are caught in a trap and cooled to a temperature close to the absolute zero point, they condense – similar to vapour to water – and take on an all new condition: They become indistinguishable. This collective condition is called – named for its intellectual fathers – Bose-Einstein condensate. Physicists at the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB) - at the same time members of the Excellence Cluster QUEST of the Leibniz University Hannover – have now succeeded for the first time worldwide in producing a Bose-Einstein condensate from the alkaline earth element calcium. The use of alkaline earth atoms creates new potential for precision measurements, for example for the determination of gravitational fields. Because as opposed to previous Bose-Einstein condensates from alkali atoms, alkaline earth metals have one million times more narrow optical transitions – a fact which can be used for super exact measurements. The results have now been published in Physical Review Letters. .more...