An ultracold indium machine

Despite the remarkable progress made by ultracold physics in the past few decades, most atomic species have not been cooled to ultracold temperatures. Many atoms that remain unexplored in the ultracold regime have unique properties, and they could form the basis for numerous interesting measurements. Atoms in the boron group---otherwise known as the “triels”---are one such species. They contain optical clock transitions, microwave resonances, magnetic Feshbach resonances, spatial anisotropy, and many other such interesting properties never before present at once in a quantum degenerate gas of atoms.

Here we describe our apparatus for preparing laser cooled indium, which is a triel atom. This includes 10 laser systems, an ultrahigh vacuum chamber, and a permanent magnet Zeeman slower.