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Physical Review Letters

Efimov Resonance and Three-Body Parameter in a Lithium-Rubidium Mixture

R. A. W. Maier, Max Eisele, E. Tiemann, Claus Zimmermann

Published Jul 24, 2015• 63 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We study collisional heating in a cold ^{7}Li-^{87}Rb mixture near a broad Feshbach resonance at 661 G. At the high field slope of the resonance, we find an enhanced three-body recombination rate that we interpret as a heteronuclear Efimov resonance. With improved Feshbach spectroscopy of two further resonances, a model for the molecular potentials has been developed that now consistently explains all known Feshbach resonances of the various Li-Rb isotope mixtures. The model is used to determine the scattering length of the observed Efimov state. Its value of -1870a_{0} Bohr radii supports the currently discussed assumption of universality of the three-body parameter also in heteronuclear mixtures.

DOI
10.1103/physrevlett.115.043201

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We study collisional heating in a cold ^{7}Li-^{87}Rb mixture near a broad Feshbach resonance at 661 G. At the high field slope of the resonance, we find an enhanced three-body recombination rate that we interpret as a heteronuclear Efimov resonance. With improved Feshbach spectroscopy of two further resonances, a model for the molecular potentials has been developed that now consistently explains all known Feshbach resonances of the various Li-Rb isotope mixtures. The model is used to determine the scattering length of the observed Efimov state. Its value of -1870a_{0} Bohr radii supports the currently discussed assumption of universality of the three-body parameter also in heteronuclear mixtures.
Ultracold atomic gases have recently become a driving force in few-body physics due to the observation of the Efimov effect. While initially observed in equal mass systems, one expects even richer few-body physics in the heteronuclear case. In previous experiments with ultracold mixtures of potassium and rubidium, an unexpected nonuniversal behavior of Efimov resonances was observed. In contrast, we measure the scattering length dependent three-body recombination coefficient in ultracold heteronuclear mixtures of ^{39}K-^{87}Rb and ^{41}K-^{87}Rb and do not observe any signatures of Efimov resonances for accessible scattering lengths in either mixture. Our results show good agreement with our theoretical model for the scattering dependent three-body recombination coefficient and reestablish universality across isotopic mixtures.
Building on the recent experimental observation with ultracold atoms, we report the first experimental evidence of Efimov physics in a heteronuclear system. A mixture of ;{41}K and ;{87}Rb atoms was cooled to few hundred nanokelvins and stored in an optical dipole trap. Exploiting a broad interspecies Feshbach resonance, the losses due to three-body collisions were studied as a function of the interspecies scattering length. We observe an enhancement of the three-body collisions for three distinct values of the interspecies scattering lengths, both positive and negative, where no Feshbach resonances are expected. We attribute the two features at negative scattering length to the existence of two kinds of Efimov trimers, KKRb and KRbRb.
We investigate theoretically and experimentally the heteronuclear Efimov scenario for a three-body system that consists of two bosons and one distinguishable particle with positive intraspecies scattering lengths. The three-body parameter at the three-body scattering threshold and the scaling factor between consecutive Efimov resonances are found to be controlled by the scattering length between the two bosons, approximately independent of short-range physics. We observe two excited-state Efimov resonances in the three-body recombination spectra of an ultracold mixture of fermionic ^{6}Li and bosonic ^{133}Cs atoms close to a Li-Cs Feshbach resonance, where the Cs-Cs interaction is positive. Deviation of the obtained scaling factor of 4.0(3) from the universal prediction of 4.9 and the absence of the ground state Efimov resonance shed new light on the interpretation of the universality and the discrete scaling behavior of heteronuclear Efimov physics.
Investigation of Efimov Features and Universality in 87^{87}87Rb-40^{40}40K Mixtures with finite-range interaction
The study of Efimov features and their relationships in 40^{40}40K-87^{87}87Rb Mixtures has generated extensive discussion, yet the discrepancy between Efimov universality predictions based on the zero-range approximation and experimental observations remains unresolved. In this study, we investigate the three-body collision properties with J=0J=0J=0 symmetry for a 87^{87}87Rb-87^{87}87Rb-40^{40}40K system on both sides of Rb-K scattering length to understand the mechanisms underlying this discrepancy. Our approach employs the R-matrix propagation method within a hyperspherical coordinate frame, utilizing the Lennard-Jones model potential to describe atom interactions. We predicts the existence of three-body shape resonances at large negative Rb-K scattering lengths, which leads to the enhancement of three-body recombination rates. On the positive Rb-K scattering length side, we find an Efimov recombination minimum beyond the range of previous measurements. These Efimov features, combined with experimental observations of the atom-dimer Efimov resonance, offer an opportunity to test the universality of Efimov features. Our study demonstrates the influence of finite-range effects and non-resonant intraspecies scattering length in 40^{40}40K-87^{87}87Rb mixtures, providing valuable insights into the universal relations between Efimov features in heteronuclear systems.
We report on the observation of five Feshbach resonances in collisions between ultracold 7Li^{7}\mathrm{Li}7Li and 87Rb^{87}\mathrm{Rb}87Rb atoms in the absolute ground-state mixture where both species are in their $\ensuremath{\mid}f,{m}_{f}⟩=\ensuremath{\mid}1,1⟩$ hyperfine states. The resonances appear as trap losses for the 7Li^{7}\mathrm{Li}7Li cloud induced by inelastic heteronuclear three-body collisions. The magnetic field values where they occur are important quantities for an accurate determination of the interspecies interaction potentials. Results of coupled channels calculations based on the observed resonances are presented and refined potential parameters are given. A very broad Feshbach resonance centered around 649G649\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}\mathrm{G}649G should allow for fine-tuning of the interaction strength in future experiments.
Multichannel Efimov physics is investigated in ultracold heteronuclear admixtures of K and Rb atoms. We observe a shift in the scattering length where the first atom-dimer resonance appears in the ^{41}K-^{87}Rb system relative to the position of the previously observed atom-dimer resonance in the ^{40}K-^{87}Rb system. This shift is well explained by our calculations with a three-body model including van der Waals interactions, and, more importantly, multichannel spinor physics. With only minor differences in the atomic masses of the admixtures, the shift in the atom-dimer resonance positions can be cleanly ascribed to the isolated and overlapping Feshbach resonances in the ^{40}K-^{87}Rb and ^{41}K-^{87}Rb systems, respectively. Our study demonstrates the role of multichannel Feshbach physics in determining Efimov resonances in heteronuclear three-body systems.