Production of quantum-degenerate strontium gases

We report on an improved scheme to generate Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs) and degenerate Fermi gases of strontium. This scheme allows us to create quantum gases with higher atom number, a shorter time of the experimental cycle, or deeper quantum degeneracy than before. We create a BEC of Sr-84 exceeding 107 atoms, which is a 30-fold improvement over previously reported experiments. We increase the atom number of Sr-86 BECs to 2.5 x 10(4) (a fivefold improvement) and refine the generation of attractively interacting Sr-88 BECs. We present a scheme to generate Sr-84 BECs with a cycle time of 2 s. We create deeply degenerate Sr-87 Fermi gases with T/T-F as low as 0.10(1), where the number of populated nuclear spin states can be set to any value between one and ten. Furthermore, we report on a total of five different double-degenerate Bose-Bose and Bose-Fermi mixtures. These studies prepare an excellent starting point for applications of strontium quantum gases anticipated in the near future. DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevA.87.013611