arXiv:1010.0465 · Physical Review A
p -wave optical Feshbach resonances in Yb171
Krittika Goyal, Iris Reichenbach, Ivan Deutsch
Abstract
We study the use of an optical Feshbach resonance to modify the $p$-wave interaction between ultracold polarized $^{171}\mathrm{Yb}$ spin-$1/2$ fermions. A laser exciting two colliding atoms to the ${}^{1}{S}_{0}+{}^{3}{P}_{1}$ channel can be detuned near a purely-long-range excited molecular bound state. Such an exotic molecule has an inner turning point far from the chemical binding region, and thus, three-body recombination in the Feshbach resonance will be highly suppressed in contrast to that typically seen in a ground-state $p$-wave magnetic Feshbach resonance. We calculate the excited molecular bound-state spectrum using a multichannel integration of the Schr\"odinger equation, including an external perturbation by a magnetic field. From the multichannel wave functions, we calculate the Feshbach resonance properties, including the modification of the elastic $p$-wave scattering volume and inelastic spontaneous scattering rate. The use of magnetic fields and selection rules for polarized light yields a highly controllable system. We apply this control to propose a toy model for three-color superfluidity in an optical lattice for spin-polarized $^{171}\mathrm{Yb}$, where the three colors correspond to the three spatial orbitals of the first excited $p$ band. We calculate the conditions under which tunneling and on-site interactions are comparable, at which point quantum critical behavior is possible.