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arXiv:1611.07091 · Physical Review A

Rydberg optical Feshbach resonances in cold gases

N. Sandor, Rosario González‐Férez, Paul S. Julienne, Guido Pupillo

Published Sep 28, 2017• 15 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

We propose a scheme to efficiently tune the scattering length of two colliding ground-state atoms by off-resonantly coupling the scattering state to an excited Rydberg molecular state using laser light. For the $s$-wave scattering of two colliding $^{87}\mathrm{Rb}$ atoms, we demonstrate that the effective optical length and pole strength of this Rydberg optical Feshbach resonance can be tuned over several orders of magnitude, while incoherent processes and losses are minimized. Given the ubiquity of Rydberg molecular states, this technique should be generally applicable to homonuclear atomic pairs as well as to atomic mixtures with $s$-wave (or even $p$-wave) scattering.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.96.032719

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We propose a scheme to efficiently tune the scattering length of two colliding ground-state atoms by off-resonantly coupling the scattering state to an excited Rydberg molecular state using laser light. For the sss-wave scattering of two colliding 87Rb^{87}\mathrm{Rb}87Rb atoms, we demonstrate that the effective optical length and pole strength of this Rydberg optical Feshbach resonance can be tuned over several orders of magnitude, while incoherent processes and losses are minimized. Given the ubiquity of Rydberg molecular states, this technique should be generally applicable to homonuclear atomic pairs as well as to atomic mixtures with sss-wave (or even ppp-wave) scattering.
It is possible to tune the scattering length for the collision of ultracold ground-state alkaline-earth-metal atoms using an optical Feshbach resonance. This is achieved with a laser far detuned from an excited molecular level near the frequency of the atomic intercombination transition. Simple resonant-scattering theory, illustrated by the example of , allows an estimate of the magnitude of the effect. Unlike alkali metal species, large changes of the scattering length are possible while atom loss remains small, because of the very narrow linewidth of the molecular photoassociation transition. This raises prospects for control of atomic interactions for a system without magnetically tunable Feshbach resonance levels.
This thesis reports on the first observation of optical tuning of interactions in an ultracold atomic gas. To control the elastic interactions, we use optically induced scattering resonances. They are realized by coupling pairs of atoms to a bound molecular state with the help of laser light. In comparison to the well-known magnetic Feshbach resonances, these optical Feshbach resonances allow a very fast switching of interactions in a spatially resolved way. This is because laser light can be switched on and off much faster than magnetic fields and because the light intensity can be spatially structured. Our experiments are performed with a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) of Rb atoms, which we produce in our new BEC setup. This apparatus has been constructed in the framework of this thesis and offers excellent optical access to the ultracold atom cloud. To investigate the tunability of atomic interactions with single-frequency laser light, we optically couple pairs of free atoms to an electronically excited molecular state. The coupling is achieved with a laser that is tuned close to the respective free-bound photoassociation transition. By changing the laser detuning we are able to adjust the atomic scattering length to any value between 10 a0 and 190 a0, where a0 denotes the Bohr radius. The atomic scattering length is a single quantity that fully describes ultracold elastic interactions. Since laser induced atom losses restrict the duration of our experiments, Bragg spectroscopy is employed as a fast method to measure the scattering length. We also demonstrate that optical Feshbach resonances can be realized with a two-color Raman coupling scheme. To implement this scheme, a second laser is added that couples the excited molecular state to a weakly bound molecular level in a ground state potential. Tuning the second laser results in a modification of the atomic scattering length similar to the one observed with a single laser. In addition, this scheme allows to control the width of the resonance via the detuning of the first laser. For the one-color and two-color coupling schemes, we investigate how the elastic scattering properties depend on the different available parameters, i.e. the laser detunings and intensities. Our experimental findings can successfully be described with an available theoretical model, which treats ultracold collisions in the presence of laser light. Optical Feshbach resonances have the possibility of becoming a valuable tool for fast switching of interactions. This is of special interest in quantum computation schemes with neutral atoms, where interactions between different atomic qubits need to be controlled.
We have observed optically induced Feshbach resonances in a cold ( <1 mK) sodium vapor. The optical coupling of the ground and excited-state potentials changes the scattering properties of an ultracold gas in much the same way as recently observed magnetically induced Feshbach resonances, but allows for some experimental conveniences associated with using lasers. The scattering properties can be varied by changing either the intensity or the detuning of a laser tuned near a photoassociation transition to a molecular state in the dimer. In principle this method allows the scattering length of any atomic species to be altered. A simple model is used to fit the dispersive resonance line shapes.
We demonstrate optical tuning of the scattering length in a Bose-Einstein condensate as predicted by Fedichev et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 77, 2913 (1996)]. In our experiment, atoms in a 87Rb condensate are exposed to laser light which is tuned close to the transition frequency to an excited molecular state. By controlling the power and detuning of the laser beam we can change the atomic scattering length over a wide range. In view of laser-driven atomic losses, we use Bragg spectroscopy as a fast method to measure the scattering length of the atoms.
Optical Feshbach resonances allow one to control cold atomic scattering, produce ultracold molecules, and study atomic interactions via photoassociation spectroscopy. In the limit of ultracold sss-wave collisions, the strength of an optical Feshbach resonance can be expressed via an energy-independent parameter called the optical length. Here we give fully analytic approximate expressions for its magnitude applicable to near-threshold bound states of an excited molecular state dominated by a single resonant-dipole or van der Waals interaction. We express these magnitudes in terms of intuitive quantities, such as the laser intensity, the excited-state binding energy, the sss-wave scattering length, and the Condon point. Additionally, we extend the utility of the optical length to associative stimulated Raman adiabatic passage in three-dimensional optical lattices by showing that the free-bound Rabi frequency induced by a laser coupling a pair of atoms in an optical lattice site can be approximately related to the trap frequency and the optical length.