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arXiv:1302.0297 · Physical Review A

Feshbach resonances in a nonseparable trap

Krzysztof Jachymski, Zbigniew Idziaszek, Tommaso Calarco

Published Apr 11, 2013• 10 citations
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Abstract

We consider a pair of atoms in an arbitrary trapping potential in the presence of a magnetically tunable Feshbach resonance. We find the energy levels and occupation of the bound molecular states, taking into account possible coupling between center of mass and relative motion induced by the trap. As a specific example, we discuss the case of different atomic species in a harmonic potential, where each atom feels a different trapping frequency.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.87.042701

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We consider a pair of atoms in an arbitrary trapping potential in the presence of a magnetically tunable Feshbach resonance. We find the energy levels and occupation of the bound molecular states, taking into account possible coupling between center of mass and relative motion induced by the trap. As a specific example, we discuss the case of different atomic species in a harmonic potential, where each atom feels a different trapping frequency.
We study the molecular behavior of two atoms interacting near a Feshbach resonance in the presence of a 1D periodic potential. The critical value of the scattering length needed to produce a molecule and the binding energy at resonance are calculated as a function of the intensity of the periodic potential. Because of the non-separability of the center of mass and relative motion, the binding energy depends on the quasimomentum of the molecule. This has dramatic consequences on the molecular tunneling properties, which become strongly dependent on the scattering length.
The susceptibility of ultracold gases to precise manipulation via external fields makes them ideal systems to study fundamental quantum mechanical phenomena. Various regimes, which are not possible to reach in condensed matter or nuclear physics, can be probed with these quantum gases. Especially the tunability of the interactions and confining potentials make that these ultracold gases offer unique possibilities to explore and study universal behavior. The tunability of the dominant two-body interactions in dilute ultracold atomic gases stems from the presence of Feshbach resonances. Via these resonances pairs of ultracold atoms can be associated to form ultracold molecules. In fact, measurements of Feshbach resonance positions can be used to reveal part of the underlying molecular structure. Vica versa, accurate molecular Born-Oppenheimer potentials can be used as input for full numerical coupled-channels calculations to reliably predict Feshbach resonances. For most of the heteronuclear mixtures currently studied however, the relevant molecular potentials are not accurate enough. As the coupled-channels method is often too elaborate and too time consuming to be used to fit the measured data to enable the construction of more accurate potentials, a need for accurate models which complement this established method is created. In this thesis we have developed a simplified model for resonant scattering of two ultracold atoms which fulfills this need. The asymptotic bound-state model (ABM) is a hierarchical model which can be systematically increased in complexity and accuracy. In its most simple form, the ABM only needs two parameters to predict the position and strength of Feshbach resonances: Two binding energies corresponding to the least bound state of the two molecular potentials involved. We demonstrate that this model, although it is solely based on bound states, can incorporate threshold effects. Additionally, the model can be extended to include: Multiple vibrational levels, overlapping resonances, and magnetic dipole-dipole interactions. This versatile model allows for a description of Feshbach resonances in a large variety of systems without accurate knowledge of the relevant molecular Born-Oppenheimer potentials. Being computationally light, the ABM can be used to analyze measurements of Feshbach resonances and hereby expose the basic underlying molecular structure. Additionally, the ABM is well suited to map out all available Feshbach resonances in a system. This ability is particularly useful when an optimal resonance is required for a certain experiment. For the 6Li-40K mixture we have utilized this ability to experimentally observe a strong Feshbach resonance which offers promising perspectives to reach the strongly interacting universal regime in a mass-imbalanced Fermi gas. By analyzing the various inelastic decay processes and the accuracy of the ab initio Born-Oppenheimer potentials, we predict a strong resonance in a mixture of metastable bosonic and fermionic helium atoms. For the homonuclear (bosonic as well as fermionic) helium gas we do not find strong resonances. For an ultracold gas of 40K atoms, an elaborate combined theoretical and experimental effort is presented to map out the Feshbach resonance structure. On the experimental side we observed 36 Feshbach resonances, 31 of which where observed for the first time. These observations are in excellent agreement with coupled-channels calculations which use unmodified Born-Oppenheimer potentials as input. On the theoretical side, we present a comparison between different simplified models of resonance scattering and the full numerical coupled-channels calculations. We have developed the resonant state model (RSM) to describe the resonant scattering of two ultracold atoms. This model is founded on resonant states, the natural (eigen) frequencies of the two-body system, and their non-trivial properties. Threshold effects are implicitly build into the RSM. The RSM can describe the effect of the continuum of scattering states, states which are neglected in the ABM, on the position and strength of a Feshbach resonance by only a few resonant states. Especially when a low-energy resonance is embedded in the continuum of scattering states, the effect of these states on the Feshbach resonance cannot be neglected. The RSM can be viewed as the natural generalization of the ABM. As the RSM can be based on just a few resonant states, it retains the computational simplicity of the ABM. Using the tunability of two-body interactions induced by a Feshbach resonance, we describe a crossover for a rotating Fermi gas between two strongly-correlated many-body states. We demonstrate that the correlation induced long-range interaction will shift the crossover with respect to the non-rotating case.
We study properties of two different atoms at a single optical lattice site at a heteronuclear atomic Feshbach resonance. We calculate the energy spectrum, the efficiency of rf association, and the lifetime as a function of magnetic field and compare the results with the experimental data obtained for 40K^{40}\text{K}40K and 87Rb^{87}\text{R}\text{b}87Rb [C. Ospelkaus et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 97, 120402 (2006)]. We treat the interaction in terms of a regularized $\ensuremath{\delta}$ function pseudopotential and consider the general case of particles with different trap frequencies, where the usual approach of separating center-of-mass and relative motion fails. We develop an exact diagonalization approach to the coupling between center-of-mass and relative motion and numerically determine the spectrum of the system. At the same time, our approach allows us to treat the anharmonicity of the lattice potential exactly. Within the pseudopotential model, the center of the Feshbach resonance can be precisely determined from the experimental data.
We describe the collisional interaction between two different atoms that are trapped in a harmonic potential. The atoms are exposed to a magnetic field, which is modulated in the vicinity of an sss-wave Feshbach resonance, and we study the formation of molecular bound states and excited states of the trapped system with nontrivial angular correlations.
In this Letter, we observe a novel resonant mechanism, namely, the modulation-induced Feshbach resonance. By applying a far-detuned laser to the cesium D_{2} transition with intensity modulation, we periodically modulate the energy levels of atomic collisional states. This periodic modulation connects the free-scattering states to shallow molecular states. At specific frequencies, significant atom loss is observed, which corresponds to the resonant coupling between these two types of states. This precisely corresponds to a form of Feshbach resonance, yet in the frequency domain rather than the magnetic-field domain. Using this method, we can directly scan the energy spectrum of molecular bound states without synthesizing any molecules. In addition to these bound states, we can also probe the molecular states embedded in the continuum, which are typically very difficult to detect by the conventional methods based on molecular synthesis. Moreover, by using a far-detuned laser instead of a magnetic field, it enables spatially dependent control over atomic interactions, coupling multiple levels simultaneously and inducing new Feshbach resonances for those atoms that do not have conventional magnetic resonances. Therefore, we believe that this new resonant mechanism offers new opportunities for controlling atomic and molecular interactions in quantum simulations.
We have developed a method for treating ultracold pair collisions in confined geometry of tight atomic waveguides. With this approach we have predicted and analyzed a few novel resonant and multichannel effects induced by confining traps in ultracold atomic collisions. In this report we discuss our model yielding the shifts and widths of magnetic Feshbach resonances in tight atomic waveguides. We also briefly discuss a resonant mechanism of molecule formation in atomic traps with transferring the energy release to the center-of-mass excitation while forming molecule and dipolar confinement-induced resonances in waveguides. These results could potentially be used experimentally.