Strontium as an alkaline-earth element has two electrons in its outer shell and consequently it possesses a number of very broad, very narrow, and ultra-narrow optical transitions.  These transitions make it ideal for extremely efficient laser cooling and the atom of choice in the world’s most accurate clocks.

I will be presenting a new experiment in which we produce Bose-Einstein condensates and degenerate Fermi gases of strontium with the immediate goal to perform quantum simulation of strong magnetic fields and the prospect to realize a quantum gas microscope that can detect single-atoms with sub-micrometer resolution.

In addition, I will be discussing a few other experiments related with my work in optics and in atomic physics such as the observation of optical Airy beams and the first observation of the Hofstadter-Harper Hamiltonian in an ultracold bosonic gas.