Towards a new high-performance ultracold dysprosium apparatus for quantum simulation experiments*

Dysprosium has emerged as a powerful platform for studying strongly correlated quantum systems. It possesses one of the largest magnetic dipole moments (~10 μ_B in the ground state) of any atomic species, allowing for simulations of the extended Hubbard model with dipole-dipole interactions. Our group has previously developed a novel bilayer system of ultracold dysprosium on a 50-nm scale that enhances dipole-dipole interactions by three orders of magnitude. However, the current apparatus is limited by a low MOT loading rate and a lack of site-resolved imaging. Here we report on our progress toward building a next-generation dysprosium machine with a number of critical upgrades, including but not limited to: improvement in the production, trapping, and imaging of ultracold dysprosium atoms; a shorter cycle time of ~3 seconds; and the implementation of superresolution microspectroscopy capable of simultaneous imaging of the bilayer. Equipped with these novel improvements, we aim to study new bilayer physics, including interlayer pairing induced by attractive interactions, coupled superfluid-to-Mott-insulator phase transition, and strongly interacting Bose-Fermi mixtures using a two-isotope mixture of dysprosium.