Comprehensive characterization of an apparatus for cold electromagnetic dysprosium dipoles

Abstract

We report on the development of an advanced ultracold dysprosium apparatus, which incorporates a cold atom microscope (CAM) with a design resolution of a quarter micrometer. The CAM and the cooling and trapping regions are within the same vacuum glass vessel ensuring simple atom transport between them. We demonstrate the essential experimental steps of laser and evaporative cooling, lattice loading, transporting and precise positioning of a cloud of the bosonic isotope $^{164}$Dy at the CAM focal plane. Basic characterization of the CAM and future plans in enabling its full capacity are outlined. We also present a feasible platform for simulating complex spin models of quantum magnetism, such as the $XYZ$ model, by exploiting a set of closely spaced opposite parity levels in Dy with a large magnetic and electric dipole moment. We isolate a degenerate isospin-1/2 system, which possesses both magnetic and electric dipole-dipole coupling, containing Ising, exchange and spin-orbit terms. The last gives rise to a spin model with asymmetric tunable rates that depend on the lattice geometry.