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arXiv:1303.1844 · Physical Review Letters

Coherent Molecule Formation in Anharmonic Potentials Near Confinement-Induced Resonances

Simon Sala, G. Zürn, Thomas Lompe, A. N. Wenz, Simon Murmann, Friedhelm Serwane, Selim Jochim, Alejandro Sáenz

Published May 16, 2013• 65 citations

Abstract

We perform a theoretical and experimental study of a system of two ultracold atoms with tunable interaction in an elongated trapping potential. We show that the coupling of center-of-mass and relative motion due to an anharmonicity of the trapping potential leads to a coherent coupling of a state of an unbound atom pair and a molecule with a center of mass excitation. By performing the experiment with exactly two particles we exclude three-body losses and can therefore directly observe coherent molecule formation. We find quantitative agreement between our theory of inelastic confinement-induced resonances and the experimental results. This shows that the effects of center-of-mass to relative-motion coupling can have a significant impact on the physics of quantum systems near center-of-mass to relative-motion coupling resonances.

DOI: 10.1103/physrevlett.110.203202

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We perform a theoretical and experimental study of a system of two ultracold atoms with tunable interaction in an elongated trapping potential. We show that the coupling of center-of-mass and relative motion due to an anharmonicity of the trapping potential leads to a coherent coupling of a state of an unbound atom pair and a molecule with a center of mass excitation. By performing the experiment with exactly two particles we exclude three-body losses and can therefore directly observe coherent molecule formation. We find quantitative agreement between our theory of inelastic confinement-induced resonances and the experimental results. This shows that the effects of center-of-mass to relative-motion coupling can have a significant impact on the physics of quantum systems near center-of-mass to relative-motion coupling resonances.

A detailed study of the anharmonicity-induced resonances caused by the coupling of center-of-mass and relative motion is presented for a system of two ultracold atoms in single-well potentials. As has been confirmed experimentally, these inelastic confinement-induced resonances are of interest since they can lead to coherent molecule formation, losses, and heating in ultracold atomic gases. A perturbative model is introduced to describe the resonance positions and the coupling strengths. The validity of the model and the behavior of the resonances for different confinement geometries are analyzed in comparison with exact numerical ab initio calculations. While such resonances have so far only been detected for large positive values of the

s\text{-wave}

scattering length, it is found that they are present also for negative

s\text{-wave}

scattering lengths, i.e., for attractive interactions. The possibility to coherently tune the resonances by a variation of the external confinement geometry might pave the way for coherent molecule association where magnetic Feshbach resonances are inaccessible.

A theoretical model is presented describing the confinement-induced resonances observed in the recent loss experiment of Haller et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 104, 153203 (2010)]. These resonances originate from possible molecule formation due to the coupling of center-of-mass and relative motion. A corresponding model is verified by ab initio calculations and predicts the resonance positions in 1D as well as in 2D confinement in agreement with the experiment. This resolves the contradiction of the experimental observations to previous theoretical predictions.

When two atoms interact in the presence of an anharmonic potential, such as an optical lattice, the center of mass motion cannot be separated from the relative motion. In addition to generating a confinement-induced resonance (or shifting the position of an existing Feshbach resonance), the external potential changes the resonance picture qualitatively by introducing new resonances where molecular excited center of mass states cross the scattering threshold. We demonstrate the existence of these resonances, give their quantitative characterization in an optical superlattice and propose an experimental scheme to detect them through controlled sweeping of the magnetic field.

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.