A novel all-solid-state laser source for lithium atoms and three-body recombination in the unitary Bose gas

In this thesis we present novel techniques for the study of ultracold gases of lithium atoms. In the first part of this thesis, we present the development of a narrow-linewidth laser source emitting 840mW of output power in the vicinity of the lithium D-line resonances at 671 nm. The source is based on a diode-end-pumped unidirectional ring laser operating on the 1342-nm transition in Nd:YVO4, capable of producing 1.3W of single-mode light delivered in a diffraction-limited beam. The output beam is subsequently frequency-doubled using periodically-poled potassium titanyl phosphate (ppKTP) in an external buildup cavity. We obtain doubling efficiencies of up to 86%. Tunability of the output frequency over more than 400GHz and frequency-locking of the cavity ensemble with respect to the lithium D-line transitions are accomplished. We measure the linewidth to be 200+400-200kHz. In the second part of this thesis, we employ the source in an experimental setup to produce to cool and trap lithium atoms. We realize samples of finite-temperature unitary Bose gases around the center of a Fano-Feshbach resonance, where interactions between the atoms are maximized. We present temperature-dependent measurements of the unitarity-limited three-body loss rate. The measured losses attain the limiting value imposed by quantum mechanics without adjustable parameters. This measurement allows for the introduction of a criterion for quasi-equilibrium. In this regime, by using technique based on in-situ imaging developed in our group, we provide a first measurement of the equation of state of the unitary Bose gas at low fugacities.