Dipolar atoms have unique properties, making them interesting for laser cooling and quantum simulations. But, due to relatively large orbital momentum in the ground state these atoms may have large dynamic tensor and vector polarizabilities in the ground state. This enables the formation of spin-dependent optical traps. In this paper the real part of tensor and vector dynamic polarizability was experimentally measured and compared to a theoretical simulation. For an optical dipole trap operating around 532.07 nm, tensor polarizability was found to be $-145\pm 53\mathrm{a}.\mathrm{u}.$ and vector polarizability was $680\pm 240\mathrm{a}.\mathrm{u}.$ The measurements were compared with simulations, which were done based on the known set of levels from a thulium atom. The simulations are in good agreement with experimental results. In addition, losses of atoms from the dipole trap were measured for different trap configurations and compared to the calculated imaginary part of vector and tensor polarizabilities.

• Received 9 May 2019
• Revised 10 July 2019

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.100.042502