Laser spectroscopy of atoms and molecules in buffer-gas loaded magnetic traps

Summary form only given. The very low temperatures (/spl les/1 /spl mu/K) and simultaneously high densities (/spl ges/10/sup 14/ cm/sup -3/) attainable with magnetic trapping and evaporative cooling techniques have enabled a number of experiments with atoms whose de Broglie wavelengths are on the order of, or larger than, the mean distance between the atoms. We first demonstrated the technique by buffer-gas loading atomic europium (a 7 Bohr magneton species) into a magnetic trap. This work corroborated the feasibility of the scheme and produced the first benefits of magnetic trapping of a complex atom: a hyperfine resolved Zeeman spectrum whose variation with time provided dues about the relaxation dynamics of the trapped states.