This thesis reports on the investigation of few-body physics in an \nultracold mass-imbalanced mixture at large scattering lengths. For this purpose, a \nnew apparatus for the creation of quantum degenerate 6Li and 133Cs gases has been \nbuilt. We measure 19 interspecies Feshbach resonances in the two energetically lowest \nhyperfine channels of each species of an ultracold mixture with temperatures on \nthe uK scale. We apply and compare a coupled-channels calculation, the asymptotic \nbound-state model, and the multichannel quantum defect theory for the calculation \nof the Feshbach resonance positions. All models provide a consistent and accurate \ndescription of the two-body scattering resonances in the mixture. Three-body loss \nrate measurements on the negative scattering length side of a broad Feshbach resonance \nin the energetically lowest hyperfine channel at 450 nK reveal two consecutive \nEfimov resonances. The scattering lengths assigned to the two Efimov resonances \nyield a scaling ratio that is consistent with a universal prediction in the zero temperature \nand resonant limit. The presented measurements provide the first test for \nuniversal few-body theories of mixed-species systems with large mass-imbalance.
This thesis reports on the investigation of few-body physics in an \nultracold mass-imbalanced mixture at large scattering lengths. For this purpose, a \nnew apparatus for the creation of quantum degenerate 6Li and 133Cs gases has been \nbuilt. We measure 19 interspecies Feshbach resonances in the two energetically lowest \nhyperfine channels of each species of an ultracold mixture with temperatures on \nthe uK scale. We apply and compare a coupled-channels calculation, the asymptotic \nbound-state model, and the multichannel quantum defect theory for the calculation \nof the Feshbach resonance positions. All models provide a consistent and accurate \ndescription of the two-body scattering resonances in the mixture. Three-body loss \nrate measurements on the negative scattering length side of a broad Feshbach resonance \nin the energetically lowest hyperfine channel at 450 nK reveal two consecutive \nEfimov resonances. The scattering lengths assigned to the two Efimov resonances \nyield a scaling ratio that is consistent with a universal prediction in the zero temperature \nand resonant limit. The presented measurements provide the first test for \nuniversal few-body theories of mixed-species systems with large mass-imbalance.
This thesis reports on scattering experiments performed with an ultracold mixture of fermionic 6Li and bosonic 133Cs atoms, studying two-, few-, and many-body effects in a highly mass-imbalanced system. To this end, the existing apparatus for the creation of ultracold gases is extended and improved by gray molasses cooling of 6Li and high-resolution absorption imaging. s-, p-, and d-wave Feshbach resonances in the two energetically lowest hyperfine channels are detected via atom-loss and binding energy spectroscopy. These measurements in combination with the coupled channels modeling provide a ten-fold improved parametrization of the interspecies s-wave scattering length and precise determination of the LiCs molecular potential curves. For the first time effects of spin-rotation coupling in Feshbach resonances are observed, reflected in a triplet splitting of the p-wave components. The influence of the intraspecies scattering length on the heteronuclear Efimov scenario is studied by means of threebody loss rate measurements in the vicinity of two Feshbach resonances, characterized either by a positive or negative intraspecies scattering length. The measurements are quantitatively compared to the hyperspherical adiabatic formalism. The positive intraspecies scattering length can be interpreted as three-body parameter. The impact of few-body physics in the many-body impurity problem is discussed and prospects for realization of quantum degenerate Bose-Fermi mixtures with large mass imbalance are provided.
This thesis investigates universal and non-universal aspects of few-body physics in a mass-imbalanced mixture of ultracold bosonic 133Cs and fermionic 6Li atoms. For this purpose an experimental apparatus for the creation of quantum degenerate gases has been constructed. Using radio-frequency association of weakly-bound LiCs molecules and additional atom-loss spectroscopy we determine the two-body interaction properties between Li and Cs atoms at low collision energies. The analysis with a coupled-channels calculation yields precise singlet and triplet electronic ground state molecular potential curves, from which scattering lengths and positions of Fano-Feshbach resonances are extracted. These results represent almost a tenfold improvement over the previous determination, and are used to study few-body recombination processes and, for the first time, their dependence on the interaction strength between the heavy atoms close to two broad scattering resonances at various temperatures. Measurements of three-body loss rates reveal two series of three and two consecutive LiCs2 Efimov resonances that demonstrate the universal scaling factor 4.9 between the first and second excited state resonances. The ground state resonance deviates from the discrete scaling law. By the use of hyperspherical formalism with either pairwise zero-range or Lennard-Jones model potentials we identify the van der Waals interaction between Cs atoms as a significant source of these modifications.
We observe two consecutive heteronuclear Efimov resonances in an ultracold Li-Cs mixture by measuring three-body loss coefficients as a function of magnetic field near a Feshbach resonance. The first resonance is detected at a scattering length of a_((0))=-320(10)a_((0)), corresponding to ∼7(∼3) times the Li-Cs (Cs-Cs) van der Waals range. The second resonance appears at 5.8(1.0)a_((0)), close to the unitarity-limited regime at the sample temperature of 450 nK. Indication of a third resonance is found in the atom loss spectra. The scaling of the resonance positions is close to the predicted universal scaling value of 4.9 for zero temperature. Deviations from universality might be caused by finite-range and temperature effects, as well as magnetic field-dependent Cs-Cs interactions.
Few-body effects play an important role for the understanding of ultracold quantum gases. We make use of an effective field theory approach to investigate various aspects of universal few-body physics close to a Feshbach resonance. That is the regime where the scattering length is large compared to all other length scales of the system and thus determines the observables. It is also the regime where the Efimov effect whose main characteristic is the occurrence of a sequence of three-body bound states becomes important. At unitarity, i.e., for diverging scattering length, the ratio of binding energies of neighboring states approaches a constant. The existence of those trimers can be captured by a single three-body parameter and influences observables such as recombination rates. Starting from adequate Lagrangians, we derive atom-dimer scattering amplitudes that contain all information of interest about the three-particle systems. With this method, we first investigate the scattering of atoms and dimers at finite temperature in the presence of the Efimov effect. We calculate the dimer relaxation rate and obtain good agreement with available experimental data. Furthermore, heteronuclear mixtures exhibiting large interspecies scattering length are studied in detail. If bosons are the majority species, the Efimov effect occurs in an S-wave channel and we are able to compute three-body recombination and dimer relaxation rates. The results are compared to the outcome of two existing experiments. For mainly fermionic systems, the Efimov effect is only present in an overall P-wave and three-body recombination at threshold vanishes. However, in mixtures of atoms and dimers, scattering cross sections and dimer relaxation show the typical Efimov behavior of log-periodicity. We also consider two-dimensional Bose gases, where the Efimov effect does not occur. For those systems, we derive an equation including the first non-universal corrections and deduce three-body observables such as binding energies and atom-dimer scattering parameters.
We study Efimov resonances via three-body loss in an ultracold two-component gas of fermionic 6Li and bosonic 133Cs atoms close to a Feshbach resonance at 843 G, extending results reported previously [Pires et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 112, 250404 (2014)] to temperatures around 120 nK. The experimental scheme for reaching lower temperatures is based upon compensating the gravity-induced spatial separation of the mass-imbalanced gases with bichromatic optical dipole traps. We observe the first and second excited Li-Cs-Cs Efimov resonance in the magnetic field dependence of the three-body event rate constant, in good agreement with the universal zero-range theory at finite temperature [Petrov and Werner, Phys. Rev. A 92, 022704 (2015)]. Deviations are found for the Efimov ground state, and the inelasticity parameter $\ensuremath{\eta}$ is found to be significantly larger than those for single-species systems.
This thesis reports measurements of interactions in Fermi-Bose 6Li-133Cs mixtures. Precise control of this Bose-Fermi mixture allowed us to probe few-body physics in regimes which were previously inaccessible. In particular, we performed the first model-independent test of geometric scaling of Efimov physics and probed Efimov resonances farther in the weakly coupled, narrow resonance regime than previously possible.,For this work, we built a new apparatus which overcomes the many challenges faced by Li-Cs mixtures. We developed several novel dipole trapping schemes which overcome the difficulties of mixing Li and Cs, including the large differences in initial trapping and cooling between these atomic species and a large differential gravitational sag. We also achieved part per million level magnetic field control near 900 G, necessary for the precise measurements near narrow Feshbach resonances undertaken in this thesis, by pioneering a tomographic magnetic field calibration technique.,With this apparatus, we first probed the Feshbach resonances of the Li-Cs mixture. This is an essential first step, allowing us to understand and control the two-body interactions between our atoms. Next we began to probe Efimov physics, an important three-body phenomenon wherein an infinite series of three-body bound states arise near two-body scattering resonances, such as Feshbach resonances. We demonstrated the universal scaling expected theoretically for Efimov states near a Feshbach resonance. This task was made feasible in our system by a reduced Efimov scaling constant, yet still required precise magnetic field control. Finally, additional universal behavior of the first Efimov resonance has been observed empirically in a variety of atomic systems. While theory has explained this observed universality, predictions also indicate departures for narrow Feshbach resonances, contrary to previous experimental results. By further improving our magnetic field control to probe a very narrow Feshbach resonance, we have observed a departure from the universal first Efimov resonance, helping to resolve this conflict between experiment and theory.