Experiments to Control Atom Number and Phase-Space Density in ...

2.2 6 Lithium
Lithium is the lightest of the alkali atoms. It has three electrons, one being
unpaired in the outer shell. There are two naturally abundant isotopes of lithium,
fermionic 6 Li (nuclear spin I = 1) and bosonic 7 Li (nuclear spin I = 3/2). The natural
abundance of 6 Li is approximately 7.6%. The melting point of lithium is 453.69 K; the
boiling point lies well above all relevant temperature scales of this work at 1615 K [15].
The vapor pressure of lithium is an important parameter for the experiment. In
the solid and liquid phases the vapor pressure is given by [19]
log10 PVsol = −54.87864− 6450.944
T
log10 PVliq = −10.34540− 8345.574
T
−0.01487480T +24.82251log 10T (2.2)
−0.00008840T −0.68106log 10T. (2.3)
A plot of the vapor pressure in the liquid phase is shown in figure 2.2.
Ptorr
0.01
10 4
10 6
10 8
10
450 500 550 600 650 700 750 800
10
Figure 2.2: Vapor pressure of liquid lithium as a function of temperature.
TK
The work in this dissertation is entirely performed using 6 Li, and thus all prop-
erties given relate to this isotope. Table 2.2 summarizes some important physical prop-
erties. A more comprehensive summary of physical properties is given in [20].
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