Abstract Overlapping Feshbach resonances are commonly observed in experiments with ultracold atoms and can influence the molecule production process. We derive an effective approach to describe magnetoassociation in an external trap in the presence of multiple overlapping resonances. We study how the strength and shape of the trap affects the energy level structure and demonstrate the existence of a regime in which the conventional two-channel Landau–Zener description of the molecule production process breaks down.
Abstract Overlapping Feshbach resonances are commonly observed in experiments with ultracold atoms and can influence the molecule production process. We derive an effective approach to describe magnetoassociation in an external trap in the presence of multiple overlapping resonances. We study how the strength and shape of the trap affects the energy level structure and demonstrate the existence of a regime in which the conventional two-channel Landau–Zener description of the molecule production process breaks down.
Enhanced magnetoassociation of 6Li in the quantum degenerate regime
We study magnetic Feshbach resonance of ultracold 6Li atoms in a dipole trap close to quantum degeneracy. The experiment is carried out by linearly ramping down the magnetic field from the BCS to the BEC side around the broad resonance at Br=834.1G. The Feshbach molecule formation efficiency depends strongly on the temperature of the atomic gas and the rate at which the magnetic field is ramped across the Feshbach resonance. The molecular association process is well described by the Landau-Zener transition while above the Fermi temperature, such that two-body physics dominates the dynamics. However, we observe an enhancement of the atom-molecule coupling as the Fermionic atoms reach degeneracy, demonstrating the importance of many-body coherence not captured by the conventional Landau-Zener model. We develop a theoretical model that explains the temperature dependence of the atom-molecule coupling. Furthermore, we characterize this dependence experimentally and extract the atom-molecule coupling coefficient as a function of temperature, finding qualitative agreement between our model and experimental results. Accurate measurement of this coupling coefficient is important for both theoretical and experimental studies of atom-molecule association dynamics.
Magnetically tunable Feshbach resonances were employed to associate cold diatomic molecules in a series of experiments involving both atomic Bose and two-spin-component Fermi gases. This review illustrates theoretical concepts of both the particular nature of the highly excited Feshbach molecules produced and the techniques for their association from unbound atom pairs. Coupled-channels theory provides a rigorous formulation of the microscopic physics of Feshbach resonances in cold gases. Concepts of dressed versus bare energy states, universal properties of Feshbach molecules, and the classification in terms of entrance- and closed-channel-dominated resonances are introduced on the basis of practical two-channel approaches. Their significance is illustrated for several experimental observations, such as binding energies and lifetimes with respect to collisional relaxation. Molecular association and dissociation are discussed in the context of techniques involving linear magnetic-field sweeps in cold Bose and Fermi gases and pulse sequences leading to Ramsey-type interference fringes. Their descriptions in terms of Landau-Zener, two-level mean-field, as well as beyond mean-field approaches are reviewed in detail, including the associated ranges of validity.
We consider in detail the situation of applying a time-dependent external magnetic field to a 87 Rb atomic Bose–Einstein condensate held in a harmonic trap, in order to adiabatically sweep the interatomic interactions across a Feshbach resonance to produce diatomic molecules. To this end, we introduce a minimal two-body Hamiltonian depending on just five measurable parameters of a Feshbach resonance, which accurately determines all low-energy binary scattering observables, in particular, the molecular conversion efficiency of just two atoms. Based on this description of the microscopic collision phenomena, we use the many-body theory of Köhler and Burnett (2002 Phys. Rev. A 65 033601) to study the efficiency of the association of molecules in a 87 Rb Bose–Einstein condensate during a linear passage of the magnetic-field strength across the 100 mT Feshbach resonance. We explore different, experimentally accessible, parameter regimes, and compare the predictions of Landau–Zener, configuration interaction, and two-level mean-field calculations with those of the microscopic many-body approach. Our comparative studies reveal a remarkable insensitivity of the molecular conversion efficiency with respect to both the details of the microscopic binary collision physics and the coherent nature of the Bose–Einstein condensed gas, provided that the magnetic-field strength is varied linearly. We provide the reasons for this universality of the molecular production achieved by linear ramps of the magnetic-field strength, and identify the Landau–Zener coefficient determined by Mies et al (2000 Phys. Rev. A 61 022721) as the main parameter that controls the efficiency.
We investigate the dynamics of converting cold bosonic atoms to molecules when an external magnetic field is swept across a Feshbach resonance. Our analysis relies on a quantum microscopic model that accounts for many-body effects in the association process. We show that the picture of two-body molecular production depicted by the Landau-Zener model is significantly altered due to many-body effects. In the nonadiabatic regime, we derive an analytic expression for molecular conversion efficiency that explains the discrepancy between the prediction of the Landau-Zener formula and the experimental data [E. Hodby et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 94, 120402 (2005)]. Our theory is further extended to the formation of heteronuclear diatomic molecules and gives some interesting predictions.
Abstract The association process of Feshbach molecules is well described by a Landau–Zener (LZ) transition above the Fermi temperature, such that two-body physics dominates the dynamics. However, using 6Li atoms and the associated Feshbach resonance at B r = 834.1 G, we observe an enhancement of the atom–molecule coupling as the fermionic atoms reach degeneracy, demonstrating the importance of many-body coherence not captured by the conventional LZ model. In the experiment, we apply a linear association ramp ranging from adiabatic to non-equilibrium molecule association for various temperatures. We develop a theoretical model that explains the temperature dependence of the atom–molecule coupling. Furthermore, we characterize this dependence experimentally and extract the atom–molecule coupling coefficient as a function of temperature, finding qualitative agreement between our model and experimental results. In addition, we simulate the dynamics of molecular association during a nonlinear field ramp. We find that, in the non-equilibrium regime, molecular association efficiency can be enhanced by sweeping the magnetic field cubically with time. Accurate measurement of the atom–molecule coupling coefficient is important for both theoretical and experimental studies of molecular association and many-body collective dynamics.
The variation of a magnetic field in the vicinity of a zero-energy resonance allows highly vibrationally excited molecules (‘Feshbach molecules’) to be produced from an ultracold atomic gas. In this thesis, we study the dynamics of this process. We begin by studying the dissociation of Feshbach molecules, showing that in the limit of a sudden jump the shape of the spectrum of dissociated atoms can act as a probe of the zero-energy resonance. For some resonances, such jumps are within reach of current experiments. We also study the intermediate region between sudden jumps and asymptotically wide, linear ramps. It is shown from a precise derivation how the latter limit leads to a universal spectrum with a shape independent of the implementation of the two-body physics, provided that the near-resonant scattering properties are correctly modelled. We then turn to the dynamics of Feshbach molecule production from thermal and condensed gases. Our microscopic quantum dynamics approach includes the exact twobody evolution as an input to the many-body calculations. We show that in the long-time limit, and the Markov limit for the interactions, the non-Markovian Boltzmann equation (NMBE) we derive for the one-body density matrix reduces to the normal Boltzmann equation. In the limit of short times and small depletion of the atomic gas, the molecule production efficiency can be calculated by thermally averaging the two-body transition probability density. This thermal averaging technique is applied to studies of the formation of Feshbach molecules using a magnetic field modulation that is near-resonant with the molecular bound state energy. The continuum is shown to have a significant effect on both the dynamics and efficiency of this process. We examine the dependence of the molecule production efficiency on the duration, amplitude and frequency of the modulation, as well as the temperature and density of the gas. This method of producing molecules is effective for a wide range of bound state energies, but requires sufficient variation of the two-body energy levels with magnetic field. Lastly, we implement the NMBE for the case of a fast linear ramp across a Feshbach resonance. The solution of this equation is made feasible by including a large part of the required computation in the kernel, which is calculated in advance. The NMBE allows predictions of the molecule production efficiency which go beyond the thermal averaging technique by accounting for the depletion and rethermalisation of the continuum. In the limit of small depletions, the two approaches give the same results. As the depletion increases, the two approaches differ due to many-body effects limiting the maximum possible molecule production efficiency. We have observed this in our simulations by considering higher-density gases. We have therefore shown the suitability and practicability of this beyond mean-field approach for application to further problems in the production of Feshbach molecules from ultracold gases.