Towards an erbium Bose-Einstein Condensate in an optical box potential*

We report our progress towards producing a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) of dipolar erbium atoms in an optical box potential. Our cooling protocol closely follows existing methods - a narrow line magneto-optical trap (MOT) is loaded using a Zeeman-slowed atomic beam, followed by transfer of atoms to an optical dipole trap and subsequent evaporation and transport to an all-glass cell with enhanced optical access. Here, the atoms will be confined in a quasi-2D optical box trap generated using a spatial light modulator which will readily allow modification of both the size and shape of the potential. In parallel, the experiment is being expanded to add potassium as a second atomic species which would open possibilities to research impurity physics, Bose polarons and open quantum systems more generally.