Bose-Einstein condensation of non-ground-state caesium atoms

Abstract

Bose-Einstein condensates of ultracold atoms serve as low-entropy sources for a multitude of quantum-science applications, ranging from quantum simulation and quantum many-body physics to proof-of-principle experiments in quantum metrology and quantum computing. For stability reasons, in the majority of cases the energetically lowest-lying atomic spin state is used. Here, we report the Bose-Einstein condensation of caesium atoms in the Zeeman-excited mf = 2 state, realizing a non-ground-state Bose-Einstein condensate with tunable interactions and tunable loss. We identify two regions of magnetic field in which the two-body relaxation rate is low enough that condensation is possible. We characterize the phase transition and quantify the loss processes, finding unusually high three-body losses in one of the two regions. Our results open up new possibilities for the mixing of quantum-degenerate gases, for polaron and impurity physics, and in particular for the study of impurity transport in strongly correlated one-dimensional quantum wires.