2017/10/31 by Roberto Onofrio · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #cond-mat.quant-gas #cond-mat.str-el #cond-mat.supr-con #physics.ins-det #quant-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.3367/ufne.2016.07.037873
published as Physics Uspekhi 59 (2016) 1129 [Uspekhi Fizicheskikh Nauk 186 (2016) 1229] · 33 pages, 15 figures, contribution to the 100th anniversary of the birth of Vitaly L. Ginzburg
arxiv created 2017/10/31 · arxiv updated 2017/11/06
We review the status of cooling techniques aimed at achieving the deepest quantum degeneracy for atomic Fermi gases. We first discuss some physical motivations, providing a quantitative assessment of the need for deep quantum degeneracy in relevant physics cases, such as the search for unconventional superfluid states. Attention is then focused on the most widespread technique to reach deep quantum degeneracy for Fermi systems, sympathetic cooling of Bose-Fermi mixtures, organizing the discussion according to the specific species involved. Various proposals to circumvent some of the limitations on achieving the deepest Fermi degeneracy, and their experimental realizations, are then reviewed. Finally, we discuss the extension of these techniques to optical lattices and the implementation of precision thermometry crucial to the understanding of the phase diagram of classical and quantum phase transitions in Fermi gases.