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Cambridge University Press eBooks

Cold and Ultracold Collisions in Quantum Microscopic and Mesoscopic Systems

J. Weiner

Published Dec 4, 2003• 70 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Cold and ultracold collisions occupy a strategic position at the intersection of several powerful themes of current research in chemical physics, in atomic, molecular and optical physics, and even in condensed matter. The nature of these collisions has important consequences for optical manipulation of inelastic and reactive processes, precision measurement of molecular and atomic properties, matter–wave coherences and quantum-statistical condensates of dilute, weakly interacting atoms. This crucial position explains the wide interest and explosive growth of the field since its inception in 1987. The author reviews elements of the quantum theory of scattering theory, collisions taking place in the presence of one or more light fields, and collisions in the dark, below the photon recoil limit imposed by the presence of any light field. Finally, it reviews the essential properties of these mesoscopic quantum systems and describes the key importance of the scattering length to condensate stability.

DOI
10.1017/cbo9780511535215

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Cold and ultracold collisions occupy a strategic position at the intersection of several powerful themes of current research in chemical physics, in atomic, molecular and optical physics, and even in condensed matter. The nature of these collisions has important consequences for optical manipulation of inelastic and reactive processes, precision measurement of molecular and atomic properties, matter–wave coherences and quantum-statistical condensates of dilute, weakly interacting atoms. This crucial position explains the wide interest and explosive growth of the field since its inception in 1987. The author reviews elements of the quantum theory of scattering theory, collisions taking place in the presence of one or more light fields, and collisions in the dark, below the photon recoil limit imposed by the presence of any light field. Finally, it reviews the essential properties of these mesoscopic quantum systems and describes the key importance of the scattering length to condensate stability.
Cold and ultracold collisions occupy a strategic position at the intersection of several powerful themes of current research in chemical physics, in atomic, molecular and optical physics, and even in condensed matter. The nature of these collisions has important consequences for optical manipulation of inelastic and reactive processes, precision measurement of molecular and atomic properties, matter-wave coherences and quantum-statistical condensates of dilute, weakly interacting atoms. This crucial position explains the wide interest and explosive growth of the field since its inception in 1987. The author reviews elements of the quantum theory of scattering theory, collisions taking place in the presence of one or more light fields, and collisions in the dark, below the photon recoil limit imposed by the presence of any light field. Finally, it reviews the essential properties of these mesoscopic quantum systems and describes the key importance of the scattering length to condensate stability.
Cold and ultracold collisions occupy a strategic position at the intersection of several powerful themes of current research in chemical physics, in atomic, molecular and optical physics, and even in condensed matter. The nature of these collisions has important consequences for optical manipulation of inelastic and reactive processes, precision measurement of molecular and atomic properties, matter-wave coherences and quantum-statistical condensates of dilute, weakly interacting atoms. This crucial position explains the wide interest and explosive growth of the field since its inception in 1987. The author reviews elements of the quantum theory of scattering theory, collisions taking place in the presence of one or more light fields, and collisions in the dark, below the photon recoil limit imposed by the presence of any light field. Finally, it reviews the essential properties of these mesoscopic quantum systems, and describes the key importance of the scattering length to condensate stability.
Collision physics plays a key role in understanding the properties of ultracold gases. First, collisions ensure thermalization in trapped atomic samples, which is essential for the success of evaporative cooling. Second, interactions between atoms determine the equilibrium shape and the dynamics of the condensate once it is formed. Finally collisions limit the achievable spatial densities via inelastic processes, which ultimately determine whether a given atomic species may lead to Bose-Einstein condensation. The purpose of the following lectures is to give a basic introduction to collision physics with a special emphasis on the low temperature aspect of these interactions. We will consider here only binary interactions between atoms since one of the remarkable prop-erties of the physics of ultra-cold dilute gases is that all the macroscopic properties of the system can be directly deduced from the two-body interaction potential. In particular the essential concept of scattering length will be introduced and developped for some simple potentials, using as practical examples experimental results obtained on atomic cesium and rubidium. The present lectures are complementary to the ones given by D. Heinzen where a detailed comparison between the collisional properties of the various alkali atoms will be found, together with explanations of the spectroscopic approaches used in the precise determination of interatomic potentials. 1. – Scattering theory: a brief reminder 1.1. Collision between two particles. – We consider here an elementary collision process between two particles 1 and 2 with the same mass M, interacting through the potential
In the past two decades, the revolutionary technologies of creating cold and ultracold molecules have provided cutting-edge experiments for studying the fundamental phenomena of collision physics. To a large degree, the recent explosion of interest in the molecular collisions has been sparked by dramatic progress of experimental capabilities and theoretical methods, which permit molecular collisions to be explored deep in the quantum mechanical limit. Tremendous experimental advances in the field have already been achieved, and the authors, from an experimental perspective, provide a review of these studies for exploring the nature of molecular collisions occurring at temperatures ranging from the Kelvin to the nanoKelvin regime, as well as for applications of producing ultracold molecules.
The research field of cold and ultracold atoms and molecules is rapidly growing and expanding into different areas of research such as quantum information science and condensed matter physics. The success of this field is due to the possibility of precisely controlling and manipulating atoms and molecules at low temperatures. The progress in this field relies on the development of new methods for controlling collisional dynamics and interactions of particles with electromagnetic fields. This Thesis describes research on modification of the collisional dynamics of ultracold atoms and molecules by external laser and microwave fields as well as new methods for the detection of weak electromagnetic fields. First, we study the scattering of atoms and molecules confined in a 2D geometry by optical lattices. In particular we develop a theory for scattering in 2D and derive the equations for the threshold dependence of the collision cross sections. We show that inelastic processes and chemical reactions can be suppressed under strong confinement in one dimension and can be controlled by varying the orientation of the external field with respect to the plane of confinement. Next, we present a rigorous theory of low-temperature molecular collisions in the presence of a microwave field. The microwave field can theoretically be used to trap and control polar molecules. The molecular collisions may lead to trap loss and decoherence. We develop a rigorous quantum theory for molecular scattering in the presence of microwave fields. We study inelastic, spin-changing molecular collisions and Feshbach resonances in the presence of microwave fields. We demonstrate that inelastic collisions accompanied by absorption of microwave photons can be significant. The detection of weak electromagnetic fields is very important for various applications ranging from fundamental measurements to biomagnetic imaging, and for tests of microwave chips. We present a method for the detection of weak electromagnetic fields in a wide range of frequencies from sub-kHz to THz with ultracold polar molecules. We show that using ultracold molecules one can achieve the sensitivity of two orders of magnitude larger than with a similar method based on ultracold Rb atoms.
Abstract : This research program seeks to understand and control atomic collisions at ultracold temperatures where quantum and light-filed effects lead to new interactions between atoms. We have pursued experimental and theoretical investigations of optical shielding and suppression, and the nature of ground-state collisions in and near a Bose-Einstein condensate. This research shows how inelastic collisions can be turned on and turned off by light fields, how the scattering length of ultracold ground-state collisions might be altered by light fields.