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arXiv:0710.0733 · Physical Review Letters

Total Control over Ultracold Interactions via Electric and Magnetic Fields

Bout Marcelis, BOUDEWIJN J. VERHAAR, S. J. J. M. F. Kokkelmans

Published Apr 18, 2008• 39 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

The scattering length is commonly used to characterize the strength of ultracold atomic interactions, since it is the leading parameter in the low-energy expansion of the scattering phase shift. Its value can be modified via a magnetic field, by using a Feshbach resonance. However, the effective range term, which is the second parameter in the phase shift expansion, determines the width of the resonance and gives rise to important properties of ultracold gases. Independent control over this parameter is not possible by using a magnetic field only. We demonstrate that a combination of magnetic and electric fields can be used to get independent control over both parameters, which leads to full control over elastic ultracold interactions.

DOI
10.1103/physrevlett.100.153201

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The scattering length is commonly used to characterize the strength of ultracold atomic interactions, since it is the leading parameter in the low-energy expansion of the scattering phase shift. Its value can be modified via a magnetic field, by using a Feshbach resonance. However, the effective range term, which is the second parameter in the phase shift expansion, determines the width of the resonance and gives rise to important properties of ultracold gases. Independent control over this parameter is not possible by using a magnetic field only. We demonstrate that a combination of magnetic and electric fields can be used to get independent control over both parameters, which leads to full control over elastic ultracold interactions.
We describe two-field optical techniques to control interactions in Feshbach resonances for two-body scattering in ultracold gases. These techniques create a molecular dark state in the closed channel of a magnetically tunable Feshbach resonance, greatly suppressing optical scattering compared to single optical field methods. The dark-state method enables control of the effective range, by creating narrow features that modify the energy dependence of the scattering phase shift, as well as control of the elastic and inelastic parts of the zero-energy sss-wave scattering amplitude. We determine the scattering length and the effective range from an effective range expansion, by calculating the momentum-dependent scattering phase shift from the two-body scattering state.
This Thesis describes new mechanisms for controlling elastic and inelastic collisions of ultracold atoms and molecules with static electromagnetic and laser fields. The dynamical properties of ultracold atoms are usually tuned in experiments by applying an external magnetic field to induce a Feshbach resonance. The work presented in this Thesis demonstrates the possibility of inducing and manipulating Feshbach resonances with electric fields. We discuss in detail the mechanisms of electric-field-induced resonances in ultracold mixtures of alkali metal atoms and demonstrate that electric fields may shift and split the magnetic resonances. We show that electric fields may spin up the collision complex of ultracold atoms and induce anisotropic scattering which may be exploited in experiments on many-body dynamics of ultracold gaseous mixtures. The mechanisms of electric-field-induced resonances described in this Thesis allow for two-dimensional control of inter-particle interactions, leading to total control over ultracold gases. To guide future experiments, we generate accurate interaction potentials for ultracold Li--Rb mixtures by fitting positions and widths of experimentally measured Feshbach resonances. Ultracold atomic and molecular gases can be confined by laser fields in one or two dimensions which produces an optical lattice of ultracold particles. We develop a multichannel scattering theory for collisions of atoms and molecules in two dimensions and explore the effects of the confining laser potential on inelastic and reactive collisions of ultracold atoms and molecules in a 1D optical lattice. We show that ultracold collisions can be controlled in a quasi-2D geometry by varying the orientation of a magnetic field with respect to the confinement plane normal and demonstrate that the threshold energy dependence of cross sections for inelastic collisions in an optical lattice can be tuned by varying the confining potential and the magnetic field. Our results show that applying laser confinement in one dimension may stabilize ultracold systems with large scattering lengths, which may open up interesting opportunities for studies of ultracold controlled chemistry and might lead to a new research direction of ultracold chemistry in restricted geometries.
We present a detailed analysis of Feshbach resonances in ultracold collisions of Li and Cs atoms in the presence of superimposed electric and magnetic fields. We show that electric fields induce resonances through couplings between the sss- and ppp-wave scattering channels and modify the scattering length to a great extent. Electric-field-induced resonances lead to the anisotropy of ultracold scattering and provide the diagnostics for magnetic ppp-wave resonances in ultracold gases. We show that the electric field couplings may shift the positions of sss-wave magnetic resonances, thereby making the electric field control of ultracold atoms possible even far away from ppp-wave resonances. Finally, we demonstrate that electric fields may rotate and spin up the collision complex of ultracold atoms at substantial rates.
Due to atomic interactions, a dilute gas Bose-Einstein condensate acquires a self- energy proportional to the two-body scattering length a. This self-energy strongly influences the stability, formation rate, size and shape, collective excitations, and other properties of a condensate. For a given atomic species at zero magnetic field, the scattering length is fixed, and this had led to a rather limited range of interaction strengths in experiments. However, it has been predicted that a magnetically tunable Feshbach resonance could be used to strongly modify scattering lengths [1]. We have observed such a Feshbach resonance in collisions of ultracold 85Rb(f =2, mf=−2) atoms in a magnetic field B. From our measured resonance position and width, we infer that the scattering length a2,−2 for collisions of these atoms has the dispersive resonance form.
We present a detailed analysis of Feshbach resonances in ultracold collisions of Li and Cs atoms in the presence of superimposed electric and magnetic fields. We show that electric fields induce resonances through couplings between the sss- and ppp-wave scattering channels and modify the scattering length to a great extent. Electric-field-induced resonances lead to the anisotropy of ultracold scattering and provide the diagnostics for magnetic ppp-wave resonances in ultracold gases. We show that the electric field couplings may shift the positions of sss-wave magnetic resonances, thereby making the electric field control of ultracold atoms possible even far away from ppp-wave resonances. Finally, we demonstrate that electric fields may rotate and spin up the collision complex of ultracold atoms at substantial rates.