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Physics

Probing Molecular Magnetism Interferometrically

Peter Hannaford

Published Sep 12, 2022• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

A matter-wave interferometer can probe the magnetism of a broad range of species, from single atoms to very large, weakly magnetic molecules.
DOI
10.1103/physics.15.137

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Abstract Recent advances in the precise control of ultracold atomic systems have led to the realisation of Bose–Einstein condensates (BECs) and degenerate Fermi gases. An important challenge is to extend this level of control to more complicated molecular systems. One route for producing ultracold molecules is to form them from the atoms in a BEC. For example, a two-photon stimulated Raman transition in a 87Rb BEC has been used to produce 87Rb2 molecules in a single rotational-vibrational state1, and ultracold molecules have also been formed2 through photoassociation of a sodium BEC. Although the coherence properties of such systems have not hitherto been probed, the prospect of creating a superposition of atomic and molecular condensates has initiated much theoretical work3, 4, 5, 6, 7. Here we make use of a time-varying magnetic field near a Feshbach resonance8, 9, 10, 11, 12 to produce coherent coupling between atoms and molecules in a 85Rb BEC. A mixture of atomic and molecular states is created and probed by sudden changes in the magnetic field, which lead to oscillations in the number of atoms that remain in the condensate. The oscillation frequency, measured over a large range of magnetic fields, is in excellent agreement with the theoretical molecular binding energy, indicating that we have created a quantum superposition of atoms and diatomic molecules—two chemically different species.
\n The problem of molecular production from a degenerate gas of fermions at a broad Feshbach resonance, in a single-mode approximation, is reduced to the linear Landau-Zener problem for operators. The strong interaction and induced coherence lead to significant renormalization of the gap between adiabatic levels. The essential region of energies near the resonance contributing to the atom-molecule transformation strongly exceeds the Fermi energy of the weakly interacting gas. The close vicinity of the exact resonance does not play as substantial a role as in the static problem. Our main results are: i) The molecular production is sensitive to the initial magnetic field. ii) In the inverse process of molecule dissociation a large BCS condensate distributed over a broad range of momenta is generated.\n