Ultracold quantum matter

Abstract:

We present a method of transferring a cold atom between spatially separated microtraps by means of a Raman transition between the ground motional states of the two traps. The intermediate states for the Raman transition are the vibrational levels of a third microtrap, and we determine the experimental conditions for which the overlap of the wavefunctions leads to an efficient transfer. There is a close analogy with the Franck-Condon principle in the spectroscopy of molecules. The spin-dependent manipulation of neutral atoms in microtraps has important applications in quantum information processing. We also show that, starting with several atoms, precisely one atom can be transferred to the final potential well hence giving deterministic preparation of single atoms. © 2007 IOP Publishing Ltd.

Abstract:

We predict the resonance-enhanced magnetic field dependence of atom-dimer relaxation and three-body recombination rates in a Rb87 Bose-Einstein condensate close to 1007 G. Our exact treatments of three-particle scattering explicitly include the dependence of the interactions on the atomic Zeeman levels. The Feshbach resonance distorts the entire diatomic energy spectrum, causing interferences in both loss phenomena. Our two independent experiments confirm the predicted recombination loss over a range of rate constants that spans four orders of magnitude. © 2007 The American Physical Society.