We use a gray molasses operating on the D 1 atomic transition to produce degenerate quantum gases of 6 Li with a large number of atoms. This sub-Doppler cooling phase allows us to lower the initial temperature of 10 9 atoms from 500 to 40 μK in 2 ms. We observe that D 1 cooling remains effective into a high-intensity infrared dipole trap where two-state mixtures are evaporated to reach the degenerate regime. We produce molecular Bose-Einstein condensates of up to 5 × 10 5 molecules and weakly interacting degenerate Fermi gases of 7 × 10 5 atoms at T /T F < 0.1 with a typical experimental duty cycle of 11 s.

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We report a metrological-grade THz spectroscopy based on the combination of a THz frequency-comb synthesizer (FCS) and a THz quantum cascade laser (QCL). The QCL, emitting at 2.5 THz, is phase locked to the free-space THz FCS, and its frequency is swept across a methanol transition by tuning the combrepetition rate, which is ultimately disciplined by the Cs primary frequency standard. The absolute frequency scale provides an uncertainty of a few parts in 10 −11 on the laser frequency and 10 −9 on the linecenter determination, ranking this technique among the most precise ever developed in the THz range.

A magneto-optic trap for micro-objects is described. Magnetic beads were trapped by optical tweezers while being rotated by a new integrated magnetic manipulator. Rotation was achieved with eight electromagnets with tip-pole geometry. The time orbital potential technique was used to achieve rotation of magnetic beads. Trapping in three dimensions and rotation of magnetic beads on three axes are demonstrated with forces up to 230 pN and force momenta of up to 10(-16)N m . A position-detection apparatus based on an interferometric scheme provides nanometer sensitivities in a few milliseconds.

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