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Association and Dissociation of Ultracold Fermions Using an Oscillating Magnetic Field

Abhishek Mohapatra

Published Jan 1, 2018• 0 citations
OpenAlex

Abstract

The pairwise interactions of ultracold atoms can be resonantly enhanced by tuning the scattering length to infinity using a Feshbach resonance.In a gas of ultracold atoms whose scattering length is controlled by a magnetic Feshbach resonance, the atoms can be associated into universal dimers and the dimers can be dissociated into unbound atoms by using an oscillating longitudinal magnetic field with frequency near the binding energy of a dimer.If the gas of ultracold atoms are fermions, the oscillating magnetic field with frequency near the pairing gap can dissociate Cooper pairs into pairs of unbound atoms.In this thesis, we show that the transition rates for association and dissociation can be calculated by treating the oscillating magnetic field as a sinusoidal time-dependent perturbation proportional to the contact operator.We calculate both the harmonic and subharmonic transition rates analytically for association in a thermal gas of atoms and for dissociation in a thermal gas of dimers.We also calculate the harmonic transition rate analytically for the dissociation of Cooper pairs into pairs of unbound atoms in the BCS limit.Our results for the dissociation rate of Cooper pairs can be used to make a direct measurement of the pairing gap for fermionic atoms.

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In a gas of ultracold atoms whose scattering length is controlled by a magnetic Feshbach resonance, atoms can be associated into universal dimers by an oscillating longitudinal magnetic field. In addition to the harmonic resonance with frequency near that determined by the dimer binding energy, there is a subharmonic resonance with half that frequency. If the thermal gas contains dimers, they can be dissociated into unbound atoms by the oscillating magnetic field. We show that the transition rates for association and dissociation can be calculated by treating the oscillating magnetic field as a sinusoidal time-dependent perturbation proportional to the contact operator. Many-body effects are taken into account through transition matrix elements of the contact operator. We calculate both the harmonic and subharmonic transition rates analytically for association in a thermal gas of atoms and for dissociation in a thermal gas of dimers.

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In systems of ultracold atoms, pairwise interactions can be resonantly enhanced by a new mechanism that does not rely upon a magnetic Feshbach resonance. In this mechanism, interactions are controlled by tuning the frequency of an oscillating parallel component of the magnetic field close to the transition frequency between the scattering atoms and a two-atom bound state. The real part of the resulting s-wave scattering length a is resonantly enhanced when the oscillation frequency is close to the transition frequency. The resonance parameters can be controlled by varying the amplitude of the oscillating field. The amplitude also controls the imaginary part of a, which arises because the oscillating field converts atom pairs into molecules. The real part of a can be made much larger than the background scattering length without introducing catastrophic atom losses from the imaginary part. For the case of a shallow bound state in the scattering channel, the dimensionless resonance parameters are universal functions of the dimensionless oscillation amplitude.

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We investigate the dynamic response of a highly degenerate ultracold Fermi gas to varying magnetic fields near the Feshbach resonance. Following the experimental practice, we calculate the dynamics of the excitation gap in response to the oscillating and linearly ramped magnetic fields, respectively. For oscillating magnetic fields, depending on the frequencies and the amplitudes of the oscillations, the response of the system shows either linear or rich nonlinear behavior. In addition, both the spectral studies through the linear-response theory and the time-domain simulations suggest the existence of a resonant frequency corresponding to the dissociation threshold of the fermion atom pairs. For linearly ramped magnetic fields, the response of the excitation gap shows damped oscillations, with the final value dependent on the rate of the field sweep. This work may find its applications in exploring the dynamics of the ultracold atom superfluidity near the BCS--Bose-Einstein-condensation crossover region.

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At the location of a magnetic-field Feshbach resonance, a mixture gas of fermionic atoms and dimers of fermionic atom pairs is investigated in the unitarity limit where the absolute value of the scattering length is much larger than the mean distance between atoms. The dynamic equilibrium of the mixture gases is characterized by the minimum of the Gibbs free energy. For the fermionic atoms and dimers with divergent scattering length, it is found that the fraction of the dimers based on a very simple theory agrees with the high fraction of zero-momentum molecules observed in a recent experiment (M. W. Zwierlein et al, Phys. Rev. Lett. 92, 120403 (2004)). The dimeric gas can be also used to interpret the frequency of the radial breathing mode observed in the experiment by J. Kinast et al (Phys. Rev. Lett. 92, 150402 (2004)).

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Resonant Floquet Scattering of Ultracold Atoms

Dane Hudson Smith

In systems of ultracold atoms, pairwise interactions are resonantly enhanced by the application of an oscillating magnetic field that is parallel to the spin-quantization axis of the atoms. The resonance occurs when the frequency of the applied field is precisely tuned near the transition frequency between the scattering atoms and a diatomic molecule. The resulting cross section can be made more than two orders of magnitude larger than the cross section in the absence of the oscillating field. The low momentum resonance properties have a universal description that is independent of the atomic species. To arrive at these conclusions, we first develop a formal extension of Floquet theory to describe scattering of atoms with time-periodic, short-range interaction potentials. We then calculate the atomic scattering properties by modeling the atomic interactions with a square well potential with oscillating depth and then explicitly solving the time-dependent Schrodinger equation. We then apply the Floquet formalism to the case of atoms scattering with a contact interaction described by a time-periodic scattering length, obtaining analytic results that agree with those obtained by solving the time-dependent Schrodinger equation.

arXiv:1611.05412•Nov 16, 2016•0 citations
The pairwise interactions of ultracold atoms can be resonantly enhanced by tuning the scattering length to infinity using a Feshbach resonance.In a gas of ultracold atoms whose scattering length is controlled by a magnetic Feshbach resonance, the atoms can be associated into universal dimers and the dimers can be dissociated into unbound atoms by using an oscillating longitudinal magnetic field with frequency near the binding energy of a dimer.If the gas of ultracold atoms are fermions, the oscillating magnetic field with frequency near the pairing gap can dissociate Cooper pairs into pairs of unbound atoms.In this thesis, we show that the transition rates for association and dissociation can be calculated by treating the oscillating magnetic field as a sinusoidal time-dependent perturbation proportional to the contact operator.We calculate both the harmonic and subharmonic transition rates analytically for association in a thermal gas of atoms and for dissociation in a thermal gas of dimers.We also calculate the harmonic transition rate analytically for the dissociation of Cooper pairs into pairs of unbound atoms in the BCS limit.Our results for the dissociation rate of Cooper pairs can be used to make a direct measurement of the pairing gap for fermionic atoms.
In a gas of ultracold atoms whose scattering length is controlled by a magnetic Feshbach resonance, atoms can be associated into universal dimers by an oscillating longitudinal magnetic field. In addition to the harmonic resonance with frequency near that determined by the dimer binding energy, there is a subharmonic resonance with half that frequency. If the thermal gas contains dimers, they can be dissociated into unbound atoms by the oscillating magnetic field. We show that the transition rates for association and dissociation can be calculated by treating the oscillating magnetic field as a sinusoidal time-dependent perturbation proportional to the contact operator. Many-body effects are taken into account through transition matrix elements of the contact operator. We calculate both the harmonic and subharmonic transition rates analytically for association in a thermal gas of atoms and for dissociation in a thermal gas of dimers.
In a system of ultracold atoms near a Feshbach resonance, pairs of atoms can be associated into universal dimers by an oscillating magnetic field with a frequency near that determined by the dimer binding energy. We present a simple expression for the transition rate that takes into account many-body effects through a transition matrix element of the contact. In a thermal gas, the width of the peak in the transition rate as a function of the frequency is determined by the temperature. In a dilute Bose-Einstein condensate of atoms, the width is determined by the inelastic scattering rates of a dimer with zero-energy atoms. Near an atom-dimer resonance, there is a dramatic increase in the width from inelastic atom-dimer scattering and from atom-atom-dimer recombination. The recombination contribution provides a signature for universal tetramers that are Efimov states consisting of two atoms and a dimer.
In systems of ultracold atoms, pairwise interactions can be resonantly enhanced by a new mechanism that does not rely upon a magnetic Feshbach resonance. In this mechanism, interactions are controlled by tuning the frequency of an oscillating parallel component of the magnetic field close to the transition frequency between the scattering atoms and a two-atom bound state. The real part of the resulting s-wave scattering length a is resonantly enhanced when the oscillation frequency is close to the transition frequency. The resonance parameters can be controlled by varying the amplitude of the oscillating field. The amplitude also controls the imaginary part of a, which arises because the oscillating field converts atom pairs into molecules. The real part of a can be made much larger than the background scattering length without introducing catastrophic atom losses from the imaginary part. For the case of a shallow bound state in the scattering channel, the dimensionless resonance parameters are universal functions of the dimensionless oscillation amplitude.
We investigate the dynamic response of a highly degenerate ultracold Fermi gas to varying magnetic fields near the Feshbach resonance. Following the experimental practice, we calculate the dynamics of the excitation gap in response to the oscillating and linearly ramped magnetic fields, respectively. For oscillating magnetic fields, depending on the frequencies and the amplitudes of the oscillations, the response of the system shows either linear or rich nonlinear behavior. In addition, both the spectral studies through the linear-response theory and the time-domain simulations suggest the existence of a resonant frequency corresponding to the dissociation threshold of the fermion atom pairs. For linearly ramped magnetic fields, the response of the excitation gap shows damped oscillations, with the final value dependent on the rate of the field sweep. This work may find its applications in exploring the dynamics of the ultracold atom superfluidity near the BCS--Bose-Einstein-condensation crossover region.
At the location of a magnetic-field Feshbach resonance, a mixture gas of fermionic atoms and dimers of fermionic atom pairs is investigated in the unitarity limit where the absolute value of the scattering length is much larger than the mean distance between atoms. The dynamic equilibrium of the mixture gases is characterized by the minimum of the Gibbs free energy. For the fermionic atoms and dimers with divergent scattering length, it is found that the fraction of the dimers based on a very simple theory agrees with the high fraction of zero-momentum molecules observed in a recent experiment (M. W. Zwierlein et al, Phys. Rev. Lett. 92, 120403 (2004)). The dimeric gas can be also used to interpret the frequency of the radial breathing mode observed in the experiment by J. Kinast et al (Phys. Rev. Lett. 92, 150402 (2004)).
In systems of ultracold atoms, pairwise interactions are resonantly enhanced by the application of an oscillating magnetic field that is parallel to the spin-quantization axis of the atoms. The resonance occurs when the frequency of the applied field is precisely tuned near the transition frequency between the scattering atoms and a diatomic molecule. The resulting cross section can be made more than two orders of magnitude larger than the cross section in the absence of the oscillating field. The low momentum resonance properties have a universal description that is independent of the atomic species. To arrive at these conclusions, we first develop a formal extension of Floquet theory to describe scattering of atoms with time-periodic, short-range interaction potentials. We then calculate the atomic scattering properties by modeling the atomic interactions with a square well potential with oscillating depth and then explicitly solving the time-dependent Schrodinger equation. We then apply the Floquet formalism to the case of atoms scattering with a contact interaction described by a time-periodic scattering length, obtaining analytic results that agree with those obtained by solving the time-dependent Schrodinger equation.