Abstract
Two-atom systems in small traps are of fundamental interest for understanding the role of interactions in degenerate cold gases and for the creation of quantum gates in quantum information processing with single-atom traps. One of the key quantities is the inelastic relaxation (decay) time when one of the atoms or both are in a higher hyperfine state. Here we measure this quantity in a heteronuclear system of 87Rb and 85Rb in a micro optical trap and demonstrate experimentally and theoretically the presence of both fast and slow relaxation processes, depending on the choice of the initial hyperfine states. This experimental method allows us to single out a particular relaxation process thus provides an extremely clean platform for collisional physics studies. Our results have also implications for engineering of quantum states via controlled collisions and creation of two-qubit quantum gates.
Highlights
Two-atom systems in small traps are of fundamental interest for understanding the role of interactions in degenerate cold gases and for the creation of quantum gates in quantum information processing with single-atom traps
The studies of two-atom systems in small traps attract a great deal of interest, in particular for engineering of quantum states via controlled collisions and creation of quantum gates in quantum information processing with a set of single-atom traps[1,2]
We study a two-atom system of different isotopes of rubidium in a micro optical trap
Summary
Two-atom systems in small traps are of fundamental interest for understanding the role of interactions in degenerate cold gases and for the creation of quantum gates in quantum information processing with single-atom traps. One of the key quantities is the inelastic relaxation (decay) time when one of the atoms or both are in a higher hyperfine state We measure this quantity in a heteronuclear system of 87Rb and 85Rb in a micro optical trap and demonstrate experimentally and theoretically the presence of both fast and slow relaxation processes, depending on the choice of the initial hyperfine states. This experimental method allows us to single out a particular relaxation process provides an extremely clean platform for collisional physics studies. Our work can be extended to other alkali atoms, even to atom–molecule collisions[21,22], allowing further understanding of heteronuclear collisions, a precise test of atomic collisional theory, and applications to quantum information processing
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