1International Center for Quantum Materials, School of Physics, Peking University, Beijing 100871 2Collaborative Innovation Center of Quantum Matter, Beijing 100871 3Beijing Academy of Quantum Information Sciences, Beijing 100193
Abstract：We report the experimental realization of quantum degenerate Fermi gases of $^{87}$Sr atoms under controlled 10- and dual-nuclear-spin configurations. Based on laser cooling and evaporative cooling, we achieve an ultracold Fermi gas of 10$^{5}$ atoms equally distributed over 10 spin states, with a temperature of $T/T_{\rm F}=0.21$. We further prepare a dual-spin gas by optically pumping atoms to the $m_{\rm F}=9/2$ and $m_{\rm F}=7/2$ states and observe a slightly lower $T/T_{\rm F}$ than that for a 10-spin gas under the same trapping condition, showing efficient evaporative cooling under a decreasing number ${\cal N}$ of spin states (${\cal N}\geqslant 2$) despite the increasing importance of Pauli exclusion. Given that rethermalization becomes less efficient with ${\cal N}$ approaching unity, we evaporatively cool an almost polarized gas to 130 nK. The simple and efficient preparation of ultracold Fermi gases of $^{87}$Sr with tunable spin configurations provides a first step towards engineering topological quantum systems.
2019, Vol. 36 
