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arXiv:physics/0406077 · Physical Review Letters

Collective Molecule Formation in a Degenerate Fermi Gas via a Feshbach Resonance

Juha Javanainen, Marijan Koštrun, Yi Zheng, Andrew Carmichael, Uttam Shrestha, Patrick J. Meinel, Matt Mackie, Olavi Dannenberg, Kalle‐Antti Suominen

Published May 20, 2004• 41 citations
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Abstract

We model collisionless collective conversion of a degenerate Fermi gas of atoms into bosonic molecules via a Feshbach resonance, treating the bosonic molecules as a classical field and seeding the pairing amplitudes with random phases. A dynamical instability of the Fermi sea against association with molecules drives the conversion. The model qualitatively reproduces several experimental observations [Regal et al., Nature (London), (2003)]. We predict that the initial temperature of the Fermi gas sets the limit for the efficiency of atom-molecule conversion.

DOI
10.1103/physrevlett.92.200402

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We model collisionless collective conversion of a degenerate Fermi gas of atoms into bosonic molecules via a Feshbach resonance, treating the bosonic molecules as a classical field and seeding the pairing amplitudes with random phases. A dynamical instability of the Fermi sea against association with molecules drives the conversion. The model qualitatively reproduces several experimental observations [Regal et al., Nature (London), (2003)]. We predict that the initial temperature of the Fermi gas sets the limit for the efficiency of atom-molecule conversion.
We present a nonequilibrium kinetic theory describing atom-molecule population dynamics in a two-component Fermi gas with a Feshbach resonance. Key collision integrals emerge that govern the relaxation of the atom-molecule mixture to chemical and thermal equilibrium. Our focus is on the pseudogap regime where molecules form above the superfluid transition temperature. In this regime, we formulate a simple model for the atom-molecule population dynamics. The model predicts the saturation of molecule formation that has been observed in recent experiments, and indicates that a dramatic enhancement of the atom-molecule conversion efficiency occurs at low temperatures.
We present a nonequilibrium kinetic theory describing atom–molecule population dynamics in a two-component Fermi gas with a Feshbach resonance. Key collision integrals emerge that govern the relaxation of the atom–molecule mixture to chemical and thermal equilibrium. Our focus is on the pseudogap regime where molecules form above the superfluid transition temperature. In this regime, we formulate a simple model for the atom–molecule population dynamics. The model predicts the saturation of molecule formation that has been observed in recent experiments, and indicates that a dramatic enhancement of the atom–molecule conversion efficiency occurs at low temperatures.
We theoretically examine the creation of a Fermi-degenerate gas of molecules by considering a photoassociation or Feshbach resonance applied to a degenerate Bose-Fermi mixture of atoms. This problem raises interest because, unlike bosons, fermions in general do not behave cooperatively, so that the collective conversion of a degenerate gas atoms into a macroscopic number of diatomic molecules is not to be expected. Nevertheless, we find that the coupled Fermi system displays collective Rabi-like oscillations and a rapid adiabatic passage between atoms and molecules, thereby mimicking Bose-Einstein statistics. Cooperative association of a degenerate mixture of Bose and Fermi gases could therefore serve as a shortcut to a degenerate gas of Fermi molecules.
We investigate magnetoassociation of ultracold fermionic Feshbach molecules in a mixture of 40{}^{40}40K and 87{}^{87}87Rb atoms, where we can create 40{}^{40}40K87{}^{87}87Rb molecules with a conversion efficiency as high as 45%. In the limit of fast magnetic sweeps and small molecule fraction, we find that the time scale of molecule production is accurately predicted by a parameter-free model that uses only the atomic densities, masses, and the known Feshbach resonance parameters. We find that molecule production efficiency saturates for slower magnetic sweeps, at which point the maximum number of Feshbach molecules depends primarily on the atoms' phase-space density. At higher temperatures, our measurements agree with a phenomenological model that successfully describes the formation of bosonic molecules from either Bose or Fermi gases. However, for quantum degenerate atom gas mixtures, we measure significantly fewer molecules than this model predicts.
Degenerate Fermi gas interacting with molecules near a Feshbach resonance is unstable with respect to the formation of a mixed state, in which atoms and molecules coexist as a coherent superposition. A theory of this state is developed using a mapping to the Dicke model, treating the molecular field in the single mode approximation. The results are accurate in the strong coupling regime relevant for current experimental efforts. The exact solution of the Dicke model is exploited to study stability, phase diagram, and nonadiabatic dynamics of the molecular field in the mixed state.
We theoretically examine a zero-temperature system of Fermi degenerate atoms coupled to bosonic molecules via collisionless rapid adiabatic passage across a Feshbach resonance, focusing on saturation of the molecular conversion efficiency at the slowest magnetic-field sweep rates. Borrowing a novel MANY-FERMION Fock-state theory, we find that a proper model of the magnetic-field sweep can systematically remove saturation. We also debunk the common misconception that many-body effects are responsible for molecules existing above the two-body threshold.