Spin dependent optical potentials for transport measurements in ⁶Li ultracold gases

Spin drag is a widespread concept in physics, its implications ranging from spintronics to the exploration of quantum many body correlations. In particular, quantum correlations are expected to give rise to collisionless and non dissipative spin currents which are yet to be observed experimentally.  Due to their high degree of controllability, ultracold quantum gases provide an ideal platform for both testing theories and observing new spin transport related phenomena. One of the main advantages of these systems is the possibility to manipulate single atomic spin states in a controlled way. For this reason, we developed an optical scheme which exploits near resonant DMD-shaped light to generate spin-dependent optical potentials for the manipulation of Zeeman spin states in a degenerate ⁶Li gas. In particular, we observed that these states can be selectively addressed by finely tuning the light polarization and frequency between the D1 and D2 lines of ⁶Li. Through this new tool we intend to explore the dynamical response of our system in presence of a spin dependent external perturbation, and to determine the role of spin correlations in different quantum regimes across the BEC – BCS crossover, from three to two dimensions.