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Physical Review Letters

Ultracold Atom-Atom Collisions in a Nonresonant Laser Field

Vladimir S. Melezhik, Chi‐Yu Hu

Published Feb 26, 2003• 36 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Using a recently developed approach for treating the three-dimensional anisotropic scattering we find considerable influence of a nonresonant laser field with intensity $I\ensuremath{\ge}{10}^{5}\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{W}/{\mathrm{c}\mathrm{m}}^{2}$ on the Cs-Cs ultracold collisions. Strong dependence on the laser wavelength ${\ensuremath{\lambda}}_{L}$ is shown at the optical region as ${\ensuremath{\lambda}}_{L}$ becomes shorter than the critical value ${\ensuremath{\lambda}}_{0}\ensuremath{\sim}3000\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{n}\mathrm{m}$ (of the atomic de Broglie wave $\ensuremath{\lambda}$) defining the region ${\ensuremath{\lambda}}_{0}\ensuremath{\le}\ensuremath{\lambda}$ of the $s$-wave domination in the absence of the external field. Dependence on the laser polarization is also essential. The found effect can be applicable for controlling atom-atom interactions at ultralow temperatures.

DOI
10.1103/physrevlett.90.083202

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Using a recently developed approach for treating the three-dimensional anisotropic scattering we find considerable influence of a nonresonant laser field with intensity I\ensuremath≥105  W/cm2I\ensuremath{\ge}{10}^{5}\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{W}/{\mathrm{c}\mathrm{m}}^{2}I\ensuremath≥105  W/cm2 on the Cs-Cs ultracold collisions. Strong dependence on the laser wavelength \ensuremathλL{\ensuremath{\lambda}}_{L}\ensuremathλL​ is shown at the optical region as \ensuremathλL{\ensuremath{\lambda}}_{L}\ensuremathλL​ becomes shorter than the critical value \ensuremathλ0\ensuremath∼3000  nm{\ensuremath{\lambda}}_{0}\ensuremath{\sim}3000\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{n}\mathrm{m}\ensuremathλ0​\ensuremath∼3000  nm (of the atomic de Broglie wave \ensuremathλ\ensuremath{\lambda}\ensuremathλ) defining the region \ensuremathλ0\ensuremath≤\ensuremathλ{\ensuremath{\lambda}}_{0}\ensuremath{\le}\ensuremath{\lambda}\ensuremathλ0​\ensuremath≤\ensuremathλ of the sss-wave domination in the absence of the external field. Dependence on the laser polarization is also essential. The found effect can be applicable for controlling atom-atom interactions at ultralow temperatures.
Using a recently developed approach for treating the three-dimensional anisotropic scattering we find considerable influence of a nonresonant laser field with intensity I> or =10(5) W/cm(2) on the Cs-Cs ultracold collisions. Strong dependence on the laser wavelength lambda(L) is shown at the optical region as lambda(L) becomes shorter than the critical value lambda(0) approximately 3000 nm (of the atomic de Broglie wave lambda) defining the region lambda(0)< or =lambda of the s-wave domination in the absence of the external field. Dependence on the laser polarization is also essential. The found effect can be applicable for controlling atom-atom interactions at ultralow temperatures.
Interactions in a spin-polarized ultracold Fermi gas are governed by ppp-wave collisions and can be characterized by the ppp-wave scattering volume. Control of these collisions by Feshbach resonances is hampered by huge inelastic losses. Here, we suggest nonresonant light control of ppp-wave collisions, exploiting the anisotropic coupling of nonresonant light to the polarizability of the atoms. The ppp-wave scattering volume can be controlled by strong nonresonant light, in close analogy to the sss-wave scattering length. For collision partners that are tightly trapped, the nonresonant light induces an energy shift directly related to the scattering volume (as defined by A. Crubellier, R. Gonz\'alez-F\'erez, C. P. Koch, and E. Luc-Koenig, preceding paper, Phys. Rev. A 99, 032709 (2019). This effect could be used to climb the ladder of the trap. We also show that controlling the scattering volume implies control, at least roughly, over the orientation at short interatomic distances of the interparticle axis relative to the polarization direction of the light. Our proposal is based on an asymptotic model that explicitly accounts for the anisotropic dipole-dipole interaction which governs the ultracold collision dynamics at long range.
Dressed states of an atom in a classical laser field of frequency close to an atomic transition frequency are obtained, which are a considerable improvement over the usual two-level rotating-wave approximation. These wave functions are used in a calculation of the cross section for elastic electron-atom scattering in a laser field. Numerical calculations for electron-hydrogen scattering demonstrate that scattering involving absorption or emission of photons can be strongly influenced by coupling to the nonresonant states, regardless of the field strength. Inclusion of the counter-rotating terms in the calculation is shown to be essential for extending the applicability of the theory to scattering in nonresonant fields, where a first-order perturbation-theoretic treatment of the atom-field interaction would be expected to be quite justified.
Abstract Ultracold temperatures in dilute quantum gases opened the way to an exquisite control of matter at the quantum level. Here we focus on the control of ultracold atomic collisions using a laser to engineer their interactions at large interatomic distances. We show that the entrance channel of two colliding ultracold atoms can be coupled to a repulsive collisional channel by the laser light so that the overall interaction between the two atoms becomes repulsive: this prevents them to come close together and to undergo inelastic processes, thus protecting the atomic gases from unwanted losses. We illustrate such an optical shielding (OS) mechanism with 39 K and 133 Cs atoms colliding at ultracold temperature (<1 μK). The process is described in the framework of the dressed-state picture and we then solve the resulting stationary coupled Schrödinger equations. The role of spontaneous emission and photoinduced inelastic scattering is also investigated as possible limitations of the shielding efficiency. We predict an almost complete suppression of inelastic collisions over a broad range of Rabi frequencies and detunings from the 39 K D2 line of the OS laser, both within the [0, 200 MHz] interval. We found that the polarization of the shielding laser has a minor influence on this efficiency. This proposal could easily be formulated for other bialkali-metal pairs as their long-range interaction are all very similar to each other.
We propose a physical mechanism for tuning the atom-atom interaction strength at ultralow temperatures. In the presence of a dc electric field the interatomic potential is changed due to the effective dipole-dipole interaction between the polarized atoms. Detailed multichannel scattering calculations reveal features never before discussed for ultracold atomic collisions. We demonstrate that optimal control of the effective atom-atom interactions can be achieved under reasonable laboratory conditions. Implications of this research on the physics of atomic Bose-Einstein condensation and on the pursuit for atomic degenerate fermion gases will be discussed.