Sympathetic cooling of a Bose/Fermi mixture of lithium to quantum degeneracy

Abstract

A dual species electromagnetic trap has been developed for the purpose of studying quantum degeneracy and the BCS phase transition in 6Li. Since the symmetry requirements of quantum mechanics forbid collisions between identical ultra-cold fermions, the standard method of cooling atoms in a magnetic trap, evaporative cooling, will not work. To circumvent this obstacle we evaporatively cool 7Li, the boson, and allow sympathetic collisions between the bosons and fermions to cool the 6Li to quantum degeneracy. This thesis will cover the experimental details pertaining to capturing, cooling, and probing a mixture of atomic 7Li and 6Li.