We systematically studied the two-body loss in a two-component Fermi gas of
6Li atoms near a
p-wave Feshbach resonance. The two-body loss rate constants were measured for various temperatures and magnetic fields using atoms trapped in three-dimensional and quasi-two-dimensional traps. Our results were nicely reproduced by a theoretical model that incorporates the two-body loss as an imaginary part to the inverse of the scattering volume in the scattering amplitude expression. The observed loss suppression in quasi-two-dimensional traps may provide a promising strategy to realize a
p-wave superfluid in a system of ultracold atoms.
We propose a general method for optical control of magnetic Feshbach resonances in ultracold atomic gases with more than one molecular state in an energetically closed channel. Using two optical frequencies to couple two states in the closed channel, inelastic loss arising from spontaneous emission is greatly suppressed by destructive quantum interference at the two-photon resonance, i.e., dark-state formation, while the scattering length is widely tunable by varying the frequencies and/or intensities of the optical fields. This technique is of particular interest for a two-component atomic Fermi gas, which is stable near a Feshbach resonance.
We theoretically investigate three-body losses in a single-component Fermi gas near a
p-wave Feshbach resonance in the interacting, nonunitary regime. We extend the cascade model introduced by Waseem et al. [M. Waseem, J. Yoshida, T. Saito, and T. Mukaiyama, Phys. Rev. A 99, 052704 (2019)] to describe the elastic and inelastic collision processes. We find that the loss behavior exhibits a
n3 and an anomalous
n2 density dependence for a ratio of elastic-to-inelastic collision rate larger and smaller than 1, respectively. The corresponding evolutions of the energy distribution show collisional cooling or evolution toward low-energetic nonthermalized steady states, respectively. These findings are particularly relevant for understanding atom loss and the energetic evolution of ultracold gases of fermionic lithium atoms in their ground state.