Abstract
We derive a quantum theory of evaporative cooling for a degenerate Fermi gas with two constituents and show that the optimum cooling trajectory is influenced significantly by the quantum statistics of the particles. The cooling efficiency is reduced at low temperatures due to Pauli blocking of available final states in each binary collision event. We compare the theoretical optimum trajectory with experimental data on cooling a quantum degenerate cloud of potassium-40, and show that temperatures as low as 0.3 times the Fermi temperature can now be achieved.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Article number | 053610 |
| Pages (from-to) | 536101-536106 |
| Number of pages | 6 |
| Journal | Physical Review A - Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics |
| Volume | 61 |
| Issue number | 5 |
| State | Published - May 2000 |
| Externally published | Yes |
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics