121 research outputs found
Experimental Evidence for Efimov Quantum States
Three interacting particles form a system which is well known for its complex
physical behavior. A landmark theoretical result in few-body quantum physics is
Efimov's prediction of a universal set of weakly bound trimer states appearing
for three identical bosons with a resonant two-body interaction. Surprisingly,
these states even exist in the absence of a corresponding two-body bound state
and their precise nature is largely independent of the particular type of the
two-body interaction potential. Efimov's scenario has attracted great interest
in many areas of physics; an experimental test however has not been achieved.
We report the observation of an Efimov resonance in an ultracold thermal gas of
cesium atoms. The resonance occurs in the range of large negative two-body
scattering lengths and arises from the coupling of three free atoms to an
Efimov trimer. We observe its signature as a giant three-body recombination
loss when the strength of the two-body interaction is varied near a Feshbach
resonance. This resonance develops into a continuum resonance at non-zero
collision energies, and we observe a shift of the resonance position as a
function of temperature. We also report on a minimum in the recombination loss
for positive scattering lengths, indicating destructive interference of decay
pathways. Our results confirm central theoretical predictions of Efimov physics
and represent a starting point from which to explore the universal properties
of resonantly interacting few-body systems.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures, Proceedings of ICAP-2006 (Innsbruck
Spectroscopy of Ultracold, Trapped Cesium Feshbach Molecules
We explore the rich internal structure of Cs_2 Feshbach molecules. Pure
ultracold molecular samples are prepared in a CO_2-laser trap, and a multitude
of weakly bound states is populated by elaborate magnetic-field ramping
techniques. Our methods use different Feshbach resonances as input ports and
various internal level crossings for controlled state transfer. We populate
higher partial-wave states of up to eight units of rotational angular momentum
(l-wave states). We investigate the molecular structure by measurements of the
magnetic moments for various states. Avoided level crossings between different
molecular states are characterized through the changes in magnetic moment and
by a Landau-Zener tunneling method. Based on microwave spectroscopy, we present
a precise measurement of the magnetic-field dependent binding energy of the
weakly bound s-wave state that is responsible for the large background
scattering length of Cs. This state is of particular interest because of its
quantum-halo character.Comment: 15 pages, 12 figures, 4 table
Formation of ultracold RbCs molecules by photoassociation
The formation of ultracold metastable RbCs molecules is observed in a double
species magneto-optical trap through photoassociation below the
^85Rb(5S_1/2)+^133Cs(6P_3/2) dissociation limit followed by spontaneous
emission. The molecules are detected by resonance enhanced two-photon
ionization. Using accurate quantum chemistry calculations of the potential
energy curves and transition dipole moment, we interpret the observed
photoassociation process as occurring at short internuclear distance, in
contrast with most previous cold atom photoassociation studies. The vibrational
levels excited by photoassociation belong to the 5th 0^+ or the 4th 0^-
electronic states correlated to the Rb(5P_1/2,3/2)+Cs(6S_1/2) dissociation
limit. The computed vibrational distribution of the produced molecules shows
that they are stabilized in deeply bound vibrational states of the lowest
triplet state. We also predict that a noticeable fraction of molecules is
produced in the lowest level of the electronic ground state
Dark resonances for ground state transfer of molecular quantum gases
One possible way to produce ultracold, high-phase-space-density quantum gases
of molecules in the rovibronic ground state is given by molecule association
from quantum-degenerate atomic gases on a Feshbach resonance and subsequent
coherent optical multi-photon transfer into the rovibronic ground state. In
ultracold samples of Cs_2 molecules, we observe two-photon dark resonances that
connect the intermediate rovibrational level |v=73,J=2> with the rovibrational
ground state |v=0,J=0> of the singlet ground state potential.
For precise dark resonance spectroscopy we exploit the fact that it is possible
to efficiently populate the level |v=73,J=2> by two-photon transfer from the
dissociation threshold with the stimulated Raman adiabatic passage (STIRAP)
technique. We find that at least one of the two-photon resonances is
sufficiently strong to allow future implementation of coherent STIRAP transfer
of a molecular quantum gas to the rovibrational ground state |v=0,J=0>.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figure
Influence of a Feshbach resonance on the photoassociation of LiCs
We analyse the formation of ultracold 7Li133Cs molecules in the rovibrational
ground state through photoassociation into the B1Pi state, which has recently
been reported [J. Deiglmayr et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 101, 133004 (2008)].
Absolute rate constants for photoassociation at large detunings from the atomic
asymptote are determined and are found to be surprisingly large. The
photoassociation process is modeled using a full coupled-channel calculation
for the continuum state, taking all relevant hyperfine states into account. The
enhancement of the photoassociation rate is found to be caused by an `echo' of
the triplet component in the singlet component of the scattering wave function
at the inner turning point of the lowest triplet a3Sigma+ potential. This
perturbation can be ascribed to the existence of a broad Feshbach resonance at
low scattering energies. Our results elucidate the important role of couplings
in the scattering wave function for the formation of deeply bound ground state
molecules via photoassociation.Comment: Added Erratum, 20 pages, 9 figure
Evidence for Efimov quantum states in an ultracold gas of cesium atoms
Systems of three interacting particles are notorious for their complex
physical behavior. A landmark theoretical result in few-body quantum physics is
Efimov's prediction of a universal set of bound trimer states appearing for
three identical bosons with a resonant two-body interaction.
Counterintuitively, these states even exist in the absence of a corresponding
two-body bound state. Since the formulation of Efimov's problem in the context
of nuclear physics 35 years ago, it has attracted great interest in many areas
of physics. However, the observation of Efimov quantum states has remained an
elusive goal. Here we report the observation of an Efimov resonance in an
ultracold gas of cesium atoms. The resonance occurs in the range of large
negative two-body scattering lengths, arising from the coupling of three free
atoms to an Efimov trimer. Experimentally, we observe its signature as a giant
three-body recombination loss when the strength of the two-body interaction is
varied. We also detect a minimum in the recombination loss for positive
scattering lengths, indicating destructive interference of decay pathways. Our
results confirm central theoretical predictions of Efimov physics and represent
a starting point with which to explore the universal properties of resonantly
interacting few-body systems. While Feshbach resonances have provided the key
to control quantum-mechanical interactions on the two-body level, Efimov
resonances connect ultracold matter to the world of few-body quantum phenomena.Comment: 18 pages, 3 figure
Formation of ultracold SrYb molecules in an optical lattice by photoassociation spectroscopy: theoretical prospects
State-of-the-art {\em ab initio} techniques have been applied to compute the
potential energy curves for the SrYb molecule in the Born-Oppenheimer
approximation for the ground state and first fifteen excited singlet and
triplet states within the coupled-cluster framework. The leading long-range
coefficients describing the dispersion interactions at large interatomic
distances are also reported. The electric transition dipole moments have been
obtained as the first residue of the polarization propagator computed with the
linear response coupled-cluster method restricted to single and double
excitations. Spin-orbit coupling matrix elements have been evaluated using the
multireference configuration interaction method restricted to single and double
excitations with a large active space. The electronic structure data was
employed to investigate the possibility of forming deeply bound ultracold SrYb
molecules in an optical lattice in a photoassociation experiment using
continuous-wave lasers. Photoassociation near the intercombination line
transition of atomic strontium into the vibrational levels of the strongly
spin-orbit mixed , , , and states with
subsequent efficient stabilization into the vibrational
level of the electronic ground state is proposed. Ground state SrYb molecules
can be accumulated by making use of collisional decay from
to . Alternatively, photoassociation and stabilization to
can proceed via stimulated Raman adiabatic passage
provided that the trapping frequency of the optical lattice is large enough and
phase coherence between the pulses can be maintained over at least tens of
microseconds
Formation and interactions of cold and ultracold molecules: new challenges for interdisciplinary physics
Progress on researches in the field of molecules at cold and ultracold
temperatures is reported in this review. It covers extensively the experimental
methods to produce, detect and characterize cold and ultracold molecules
including association of ultracold atoms, deceleration by external fields and
kinematic cooling. Confinement of molecules in different kinds of traps is also
discussed. The basic theoretical issues related to the knowledge of the
molecular structure, the atom-molecule and molecule-molecule mutual
interactions, and to their possible manipulation and control with external
fields, are reviewed. A short discussion on the broad area of applications
completes the review.Comment: to appear in Reports on Progress in Physic
Lateral scale calibration for focus variation microscopy
Areal surface texture measuring instruments can be calibrated by determining a set of metrological characteristics currently in the final stages of standardisation. In this paper, amplification, linearity and perpendicularity characteristics have been determined to calibrate the lateral performance of a focus variation microscope. The paper presents a novel and low-cost material measure and procedures that are used to determine the characteristics. The material measure is made of stainless steel with a cross-grating grid of hemispherical grooves. The design, manufacturing and calibration of the material measure are discussed. The (20 Ă— 20) mm grid is measured with and without image stitching. The results show that the proposed material measure and procedures can be used to determine the error of the amplification, linearity and perpendicularity characteristics. In addition, the lateral stage error can be significantly reduced by measurement with image stitching
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