459 research outputs found
Reply to "Comment on 'Stimulated Raman adiabatic passage from an atomic to a molecular Bose-Einstein condensate'"
In the Comment by M. Mackie \textit{et al.} [arXiv: physics/0212111 v.4], the
authors suggest that the molecular conversion efficiency in atom-molecule
STIRAP can be improved by lowering the initial atomic density, which in turn
requires longer pulse durations to maintain adiabaticity. Apart from the fact
that the mean-field approximation becomes questionable at low densities, we
point out that a low-density strategy with longer pulses has several problems.
It generally requires higher pulse energies, and increases radiative losses. We
also show that even within the approximations used in the Comment, their
example leads to no efficiency improvement compared to our high-density case.
In a more careful analysis including radiative losses neglected in the Comment,
the proposed strategy gives almost no conversion owing to the longer pulse
durations required.Comment: Accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.
Bragg spectroscopy of a superfluid Bose-Hubbard gas
Bragg spectroscopy is used to measure excitations of a trapped,
quantum-degenerate gas of 87Rb atoms in a 3-dimensional optical lattice. The
measurements are carried out over a range of optical lattice depths in the
superfluid phase of the Bose-Hubbard model. For fixed wavevector, the resonant
frequency of the excitation is found to decrease with increasing lattice depth.
A numerical calculation of the resonant frequencies based on Bogoliubov theory
shows a less steep rate of decrease than the measurements.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figure
Multi-channel scattering and Feshbach resonances: Effective theory, phenomenology, and many-body effects
A low energy effective theory based on a microscopic multi-channel
description of the atom-atom interaction is derived for the scattering of
alkali atoms in different hyperfine states. This theory describes all
scattering properties, including medium effects, in terms of the singlet and
triplet scattering lengths and the range of the atom-atom potential and
provides a link between a microscopic description of Feshbach scattering and
more phenomenological approaches. It permits the calculation of medium effects
on the resonance coming from the occupation of closed channel states. The
examination of such effects are demonstrated to be of particular relevance to
an experimentally important Feshbach resonance for K atoms. We analyze a
recent rethermalization rate experiment on K and demonstrate that a
measurement of the temperature dependence of this rate can determine the
magnetic moment of the Feshbach molecule. Finally, the energy dependence of the
Feshbach interaction is shown to introduce a negative effective range inversely
proportional to the width of the resonance. Since our theory is based on a
microscopic multi-channel picture, it allows the explicit calculation of
corrections to commonly used approximations such as the neglect of the
effective range and the treatment of the Feshbach molecule as a point boson.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figures. Typos corrected. Accepted for PR
Linking Ultracold Polar Molecules
We predict that pairs of polar molecules can be weakly bound together in an
ultracold environment, provided that a dc electric field is present. The field
that links the molecules together also strongly influences the basic properties
of the resulting dimer, such as its binding energy and predissociation
lifetime. Because of their long-range character these dimers will be useful in
disentangling cold collision dynamics of polar molecules. As an example, we
estimate the microwave photoassociation yield for OH-OH cold collisions.Comment: 4 pages 2 figure
Rate limit for photoassociation of a Bose-Einstein condensate
We simulate numerically the photodissociation of molecules into noncondensate
atom pairs that accompanies photoassociation of an atomic Bose-Einstein
condensate into a molecular condensate. Such rogue photodissociation sets a
limit on the achievable rate of photoassociation. Given the atom density \rho
and mass m, the limit is approximately 6\hbar\rho^{2/3}/m. At low temperatures
this is a more stringent restriction than the unitary limit of scattering
theory.Comment: 5 pgs, 18 refs., 3 figs., submitted to Phys. Rev. Let
Cavity induced modifications to the resonance fluorescence and probe absorption of a laser-dressed V atom
A cavity-modified master equation is derived for a coherently driven, V-type
three-level atom coupled to a single-mode cavity in the bad cavity limit. We
show that population inversion in both the bare and dressed-state bases may be
achieved, originating from the enhancement of the atom-cavity interaction when
the cavity is resonant with an atomic dressed-state transition. The atomic
populations in the dressed state representation are analysed in terms of the
cavity-modified transition rates. The atomic fluorescence spectrum and probe
absorption spectrum also investigated, and it is found that the spectral
profiles may be controlled by adjusting the cavity frequency. Peak suppression
and line narrowing occur under appropriate conditions.Comment: 12 pages, 10 postscript figures, to be appeared in Phys. Rev.
Stimulated Raman adiabatic passage from an atomic to a molecular Bose-Einstein condensate
The process of stimulated Raman adiabatic passage (STIRAP) provides a
possible route for the generation of a coherent molecular Bose-Einstein
condensate (BEC) from an atomic BEC. We analyze this process in a
three-dimensional mean-field theory, including atom-atom interactions and
non-resonant intermediate levels. We find that the process is feasible, but at
larger Rabi frequencies than anticipated from a crude single-mode lossless
analysis, due to two-photon dephasing caused by the atomic interactions. We
then identify optimal strategies in STIRAP allowing one to maintain high
conversion efficiencies with smaller Rabi frequencies and under experimentally
less demanding conditions.Comment: Final published versio
Determination of the s-wave Scattering Length of Chromium
We have measured the deca-triplet s-wave scattering length of the bosonic
chromium isotopes Cr and Cr. From the time constants for
cross-dimensional thermalization in atomic samples we have determined the
magnitudes and ,
where . By measuring the rethermalization rate of Cr over a
wide temperature range and comparing the temperature dependence with the
effective-range theory and single-channel calculations, we have obtained strong
evidence that the sign of is positive. Rescaling our Cr
model potential to Cr strongly suggests that is positive,
too.Comment: v3: corrected typo in y-axis scaling of Figs. 3 and
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