Resonances for coupled Bose-Einstein Condensates

We study some effects arising from periodic modulation of the asymmetry and the barrier height of a two-well potential containing a Bose-Einstein condensate. At certain modulation frequencies the system exhibits resonances, which may lead to enhancement of the tunneling rate between the wells and which can be used to control the particle distribution among the wells. Some of the effects predicted for a two-well system can be carried over to the case of a Bose-Einstein condensate in an optical lattice

Analyzing Feshbach resonances -- A 6^6Li -133^{133}Cs case study

We provide a comprehensive comparison of a coupled channels calculation, the asymptotic bound state model (ABM), and the multichannel quantum defect theory (MQDT). Quantitative results for $^6$Li -$^{133}$Cs are presented and compared to previously measured $^6$Li -$^{133}$Cs Feshbach resonances (FRs) [M. Repp et al., Phys. Rev. A 87 010701(R) (2013)]. We demonstrate how the accuracy of the ABM can be stepwise improved by including magnetic dipole-dipole interactions and coupling to a non-dominant virtual state. We present a MQDT calculation, where magnetic dipole-dipole and second order spin-orbit interactions are included. A frame transformation formalism is introduced, which allows the assignment of measured FRs with only three parameters. All three models achieve a total rms error of < 1G on the observed FRs. We critically compare the different models in view of the accuracy for the description of FRs and the required input parameters for the calculations.Comment: 16 pages, 3 figures, 1 tabl

A high-flux 2D MOT source for cold lithium atoms

We demonstrate a novel 2D MOT beam source for cold 6Li atoms. The source is side-loaded from an oven operated at temperatures in the range 600<T<700 K. The performance is analyzed by loading the atoms into a 3D MOT located 220 mm downstream from the source. The maximum recapture rate of ~10^9 /s is obtained for T=700 K and results in a total of up to 10^10 trapped atoms. The recaptured fraction is estimated to be 30(10)% and limited by beam divergence. The most-probable velocity in the beam (alpha_z) is varied from 18 to 70 m/s by increasing the intensity of a push beam. The source is quite monochromatic with a full-width at half maximum velocity spread of 11 m/s at alpha_z=36 m/s, demonstrating that side-loading completely eliminates beam contamination by hot vapor from the oven. We identify depletion of the low-velocity tail of the oven flux as the limiting loss mechanism. Our approach is suitable for other atomic species.Comment: 13 pages,9 figures, submitted to Phys.Rev.