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Physical Review A

Observation of long-lived van der Waals molecules in an optical lattice

Shinya Kato, Rekishu Yamazaki, Kosuke Shibata, Ryuta Yamamoto, Hirotaka Yamada, Yoshiro Takahashi

Published Oct 8, 2012• 15 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We observe long-lived tightly bound van der Waals molecules of ytterbium in a three-dimensional optical lattice with a lifetime of 8.0 s. The molecules, state-selectively produced by a photoassociation technique from a Bose-Einstein condensate or an atomic Mott insulator, are successfully detected with a photodissociation method where the molecules are photodissociated into two atoms and the atoms are captured by a magneto-optical trap or optical molasses, for the fluorescence detection. This work will open up various possibilities of research with van der Waals molecules in an optical lattice.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.86.043411

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We observe long-lived tightly bound van der Waals molecules of ytterbium in a three-dimensional optical lattice with a lifetime of 8.0 s. The molecules, state-selectively produced by a photoassociation technique from a Bose-Einstein condensate or an atomic Mott insulator, are successfully detected with a photodissociation method where the molecules are photodissociated into two atoms and the atoms are captured by a magneto-optical trap or optical molasses, for the fluorescence detection. This work will open up various possibilities of research with van der Waals molecules in an optical lattice.
This thesis describes the results of several experiments that studied the photoassociation of an ultracold atomic Rb gas. In the first experiment, we produced ultracold diatomic molecules from an atomic gas via single-color photoassociation. The molecules were detected with resonance-enhanced multiphoton ionization. Trapping of these molecules in a quadrupole magnetic trap, with lifetimes up to 20 seconds, was also demonstrated. In addition, the rate constant for inelastic collisions between the trapped molecules and atoms was determined from measurements of the atomic density dependence of the decay rate of the trapped molecules. In another experiment, stimulated Raman photoassociation of Rb atoms in a Mott insulator state was studied. A Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) of 87Rb atoms was loaded into a three-dimensional optical lattice formed by the interference pattern of three orthogonal standing wave laser fields. This system constitutes a very good realization of the Bose-Hubbard model, which predicts a quantum phase transition between a superfluid state and a Mott insulator state at a particular lattice height. A time-of-flight imaging method was used to study the state of the atomic gas, and the quantum phase transition was observed at the predicted lattice height. The signature of the phase transition was the disappearance and reappearance of peaks in the image that arose from the interference of atoms originating from different lattice sites. Two coherent laser fields were applied to the gas in its Mott insulating state, and tuned close to a Raman photoassociation resonance, and this resulted in an observable loss of atoms due to the formation of molecules. This transition exhibited a double-peaked spectrum, with one of the peaks arising from photoassociation of atoms in sites containing only two atoms, and the other from sites containing three atoms. Also, the loss of atoms vs. the duration of the Raman photoassociation period was studied, with the lasers tuned to the peak corresponding to two atoms per site. It was found that a central core of the gas, containing about 40 percent of the atoms, exhibited a coherent oscillation between an atomic and molecular quantum gas.
The transition from a superfluid to a Mott-insulator (MI) phase has been observed in a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) of ytterbium (Yb) atoms in an optical lattice. An all-optically produced BEC of 174Yb^{174}\text{Y}\text{b}174Yb atoms was loaded into three-dimensional optical lattices produced by a 532 nm laser beam. The interference pattern was measured after releasing the quantum gas from the trapping potential. As increasing the optical lattice depth, we observed the disappearance of the interference patterns, which is a signature of entering the MI regime. This result is an important step into studies by using a combination of the MI state and the ultranarrow optical transition of ultracold alkaline-earth-metal-like atoms.
We propose the creation of a molecular Bose-Einstein condensate by loading an atomic condensate into an optical lattice and driving it into a Mott insulator with exactly two atoms per site. Molecules in a Mott insulator state are then created under well defined conditions by photoassociation with essentially unit efficiency. Finally, the Mott insulator is melted and a superfluid state of the molecules is created. We study the dynamics of this process and photoassociation of tightly trapped atoms.
Experiments on trapping ytterbium atoms in various optical lattices are presented. After the two-stage cooling, first in a blue magneto—optical trap and then in a green magneto—optical trap, the ultracold 171 Yb atoms are successfully loaded into one-, two-, and three-dimensional optical lattices operating at the Stark-free wavelength, respectively. The temperature, number, and lifetime of cold 171 Yb atoms in one-dimensional lattice are measured. After optimization, the one-dimensional lattice with cold 171 Yb atoms is used for developing an ytterbium optical clock.
We report the successful production of subradiant states of a two-atom system in a three-dimensional optical lattice starting from doubly occupied sites in a Mott insulator phase of a quantum gas of atomic ytterbium. We can selectively produce either a subradiant 1(g) state or a superradiant 0(u) state by choosing the excitation laser frequency. The inherent weak excitation rate for the subradiant 1(g) state is overcome by the increased atomic density due to the tight confinement in a three-dimensional optical lattice. Our experimental measurements of binding energies, linewidth, and Zeeman shift confirm the observation of subradiant levels of the 1(g) state of the Yb(2) molecule.
An important new development in the field of ultracold atomic gases is the study of the properties of these gases in a so-called optical lattice. An optical lattice is a periodic trapping potential for the atoms that is formed by the interference pattern of a few laser beams. A reason for the interest in these systems is that the effects of the interatomic interactions can be strongly enhanced. More specifically, it has been shown in a beautiful experiment by Greiner et al. in 2002 that by loading a Bose-Einstein condensate into an optical lattice it is possible for the system to undergo a quantum phase transition to a new quantum phase of matter, the so-called Mott insulator phase. Within this Mott insulator phase each lattice site is occupied by exactly one atom. This makes the Mott insulator phase especially well suited for applications in the field of quantum computation and quantum information processing. We have theoretically investigated the above mentioned quantum phase transition and our formalism allows for a description of the Mott insulator phase at nonzero temperatures. Another important experimental development in the field of ultracold atomic gases is the use of Feshbach resonances to control the interatomic interactions. Such a resonance occurs whenever two colliding atoms form a long-lived molecule for some time. The crucial point of a Feshbach resonance is that the above mentioned molecule has a magnetic moment that is not equal to twice the magnetic moment of the atom. As a consequence the energy difference between the two atoms and the molecule and hence the interactions between the atoms can be controlled by using an external magnetic field. By combining these two techniques, i.e, by trapping ultracold atomic gases in an optical lattice and by tuning a magnetic field near a Feshbach resonance there can be a new quantum phase transition between two superfluid phases. We gave derived the the theory for the description of these Feshbach resonances in optical lattices and applied it to various systems. To be a bit more precise, if we tune the external magnetic field such that the energy difference between a molecule and two atoms is sufficiently negative, then the gas consists of a Bose-Einstein condensate of molecules. In contrast, if the energy difference is large enough and positive we have a gas that consists primarily of a Bose-Einstein condensate of atoms. It turns out that these two limits are separated by an Ising-like quantum phase transition. By using atomic Bose gases near a Feshbach resonance detailed experimental studies which test the theoretical predictions of the statistical and dynamical properties of these quantum phase transitions can be made.