Long-Lived Spin-Orbit-Coupled Degenerate Dipolar Fermi Gas

We describe the creation of a long-lived spin-orbit-coupled gas of quantum degenerate atoms using the most magnetic fermionic element, dysprosium. Spin-orbit coupling arises from a synthetic gauge field created by the adiabatic following of degenerate dressed states composed of optically coupled components of an atomic spin. Because of dysprosium's large electronic orbital angular momentum and large magnetic moment, the lifetime of the gas is limited not by spontaneous emission from the light-matter coupling, as for gases of alkali-metal atoms, but by dipolar relaxation of the spin. This relaxation is suppressed at large magnetic fields due to Fermi statistics. We observe lifetimes up to 400 ms, which exceeds that of spin-orbit-coupled fermionic alkali atoms by a factor of 10-100 and is close to the value obtained from a theoretical model. Elastic dipolar interactions are also observed to influence the Rabi evolution of the spin, revealing an interacting fermionic system. The long lifetime of this weakly interacting spin-orbit-coupled degenerate Fermi gas will facilitate the study of quantum many-body phenomena manifest at longer time scales, with exciting implications for the exploration of exotic topological quantum liquids.