Towards lattice gauge theories in ultracold mixtures of sodium and lithium

This thesis presents the experimental implementations towards the investigations of coherent spin-changing collisions in ultracold mixtures of sodium and lithium gases. The control and understanding of such spin dynamics constitutes the first step towards implementing lattice gauge theories in this experiment. For that purpose, the performance of the experimental setup was examined and improved, considering the course of the forthcoming experimental realizations. To improve the spatial overlap between the atomic clouds of sodium and lithium, the vertical confinement of the crossed optical dipole trap has been increased. In addition, a versatile blue-detuned one-dimensional optical lattice has been implemented to confine both species in the same lattice site. Its characteristics and the experimental setup is described. For spin-changing collision investigations, control over the internal degrees of freedom of the atoms is crucial. We have implemented and described an actively stabilized offset magnetic field. Further, the control over the relative population between two Zeeman states of the sodium ground state is presented.