Three-body Loss Research Articles

Suppression of Unitary Three-Body Loss in a Degenerate Bose-Fermi Mixture.

We study three-body loss in an ultracold mixture of a thermal Bose gas and a degenerate Fermi gas. We find that at unitarity, where the interspecies scattering length diverges, the usual inverse-square temperature scaling of the three-body loss found in nondegenerate systems is strongly modified and reduced with the increasing degeneracy of the Fermi gas. While the reduction of loss is qualitatively explained within the few-body scattering framework, a remaining suppression provides evidence for the long-range Ruderman-Kittel-Kasuya-Yosida (RKKY) interactions mediated by fermions between bosons. Our model based on RKKY interactions quantitatively reproduces the data without free parameters, and predicts one order of magnitude reduction of the three-body loss coefficient in the deeply Fermi-degenerate regime.

Single-domain Bose condensate magnetometer achieves energy resolution per bandwidth below ℏ

We present a magnetic sensor with energy resolution per bandwidth [Formula: see text] We show how a 87Rb single-domain spinor Bose-Einstein condensate, detected by nondestructive Faraday rotation probing, achieves single-shot low-frequency magnetic sensitivity of 72(8) fT measuring a volume [Formula: see text] for 3.5 s, and thus, [Formula: see text] We measure experimentally the condensate volume, spin coherence time, and readout noise and use phase space methods, backed by three-dimensional mean-field simulations, to compute the spin noise. Contributions to the spin noise include one-body and three-body losses and shearing of the projection noise distribution, due to competition of ferromagnetic contact interactions and quadratic Zeeman shifts. Nonetheless, the fully coherent nature of the single-domain, ultracold two-body interactions allows the system to escape the coherence vs. density trade-off that imposes an energy resolution limit on traditional spin precession sensors. We predict that other Bose-condensed alkalis, especially the antiferromagnetic 23Na, can further improve the energy resolution of this method.

Dynamics of equilibration and collisions in ultradilute quantum droplets

Employing time-dependent density-functional theory, we have studied dynamical equilibration and binary head-on collisions of quantum droplets taking as a case of study droplets made of a $^{39}\mathrm{K}\text{\ensuremath{-}}^{39}\mathrm{K}$ Bose mixture. The phase space of collision outcomes is extensively explored by performing fully three-dimensional calculations with effective single-component Quantum Monte Carlo-based and two-component LHY-corrected mean-field functionals. We exhaustively explored the important effect---not considered in previous studies---of the initial population ratio deviating from the optimal mean-field value ${N}_{2}/{N}_{1}=\sqrt{{a}_{11}/{a}_{22}}$. Both stationary and dynamical calculations indicate sensitivity to an initial nonoptimal concentration. When three-body losses (3BL) are present our two-component approach allows to theoretically address situations in which they mainly act on one of the components of the mixture. Our approach also allows to simultaneously explore the effect on the simulation of population imbalance and 3BL, which are coupled when they act.

Focusing of Bragg-outcoupled paraxial atom lasers

We theoretically study the focusing of a quasi-continuous atom laser beam of rubidium-85 ($^{85}$Rb). A two-sate model analysis based on the Gross-Pitaevskii equation is used which comprises the effects of two-body atom-atom interactions and three-body recombination losses. Utilizing optical focusing potentials such as harmonic potentials, the essential factors such as the width, peak density and atom loss rate of the focused atom laser beam profile are investigated. Our analysis predicts that using an atom laser offers a dramatic improvement in resolution of up to $8$ nm.

Controllable dissipative quantum droplets in one-dimensional optical lattices

We investigate the dynamics of dissipative quantum droplets (QDs) forming in one-dimensional binary Bose gases subjected to three-body recombination loss and linear gain in perturbed optical lattices . We demonstrate by a perturbation procedure that an alimentation of atoms from an external feeding source to the QDs may lead to the formation of dynamically-stabilized dissipation-controlled QDs. It is worth noting that such dissipation-controlled QDs are independent of the initial condensation norm and are solely determined by the gain and loss parameters. We further study the dynamics of the dissipation-controlled QDs with varying norm due to the gain and loss mechanisms in relatively weak optical lattices. It is found that the stationary dissipative QDs can be accelerated and either continuously travel across the potential barriers or eventually perform trapped oscillations in different lattice sites by selecting the appropriate gain and loss parameters. Finally, we deal with the collision between the dissipative QDs. It is revealed that two slowly moving dissipative QDs with varying norm may merge or collide quasi-elastically depending on their initial separation, which is quite different from QDs in the conservative systems. Specially, we explore the collision dynamics of the dissipative QDs in a single lattice site provided that the spatial period of optical lattices is large enough. The in-phase interaction between the dissipative QDs tends to merge, while the out-of-phase interaction displays quasi-elastic collision.

Interactions of Ions and Ultracold Neutral Atom Ensembles in Composite Optical Dipole Traps: Developments and Perspectives

Ion–atom interactions are a comparatively recent field of research that has drawn considerable attention due to its applications in areas including quantum chemistry and quantum simulations. In first experiments, atomic ions and neutral atoms have been successfully overlapped by devising hybrid apparatuses combining established trapping methods, Paul traps for ions and optical or magneto-optical traps for neutral atoms, respectively. Since then, the field has seen considerable progress, but the inherent presence of radiofrequency (rf) fields in such hybrid traps was found to have a limiting impact on the achievable collision energies. Recently, it was shown that suitable combinations of optical dipole traps (ODTs) can be used for trapping both atoms and atomic ions alike, allowing to carry out experiments in absence of any rf fields. Here, we show that the expected cooling in such bichromatic traps is highly sensitive to relative position fluctuations between the two optical trapping beams, suggesting that this is the dominant mechanism limiting the currently observed cooling performance. We discuss strategies for mitigating these effects by using optimized setups featuring adapted ODT configurations. This includes proposed schemes that may mitigate three-body losses expected at very low temperatures, allowing to access the quantum dominated regime of interaction.

Decay of quantum sensitivity due to three-body loss in Bose-Einstein condensates

In view of the coherent properties of a large number of atoms, Bose-Einstein Condensates (BECs) have a high potential for sensing applications. Several proposals have been put forward to use collective excitations such as phonons in BECs for quantum enhanced sensing in quantum metrology. However, the associated highly non-classical states tend to be very vulnerable to decoherence. In this article, we investigate the effect of decoherence due to the omnipresent process of three-body loss in BECs. We find strong restrictions for a wide range of parameters and we discuss possibilities to limit these restrictions.

Observation of the BEC-BCS crossover in a degenerate Fermi gas of lithium atoms

We observe characteristic atomic behaviors in the Bose–Einstein-condensation-Bardeen–Cooper–Schrieffer (BECBCS) crossover, by accurately tuning the magnetic field across the Feshbach resonance of lithium atoms. The magnetic field is calibrated by measuring the Zeeman shift of the optical transition. A non-monotonic anisotropic expansion is observed across the Feshbach resonance. The density distribution is explored in different interacting regimes, where a condensate of diatomic molecules forms in the BEC limit with the indication of a bimodal distribution. We also measure the three-body recombination atom loss in the BEC-BCS crossover, and find that the magnetic field of the maximum atom loss is in the BEC limit and gets closer to the Feshbach resonance when decreasing the atom temperature, which agrees with previous experiments and theoretical prediction. This work builds up a controllable platform for the study on the strongly interacting Fermi gas.

Characterization of the magnetic field through the three-body loss near a narrow Feshbach resonance

The narrow $s$-wave Feshbach resonance of a $^{6}\mathrm{Li}$ Fermi gas shows strong three-body loss, which is proposed to be used to measure the minute change of a magnetic field around the resonance. However, the eddy effect will cause ultracold atom experiencing a magnetic field delay to the desired magnetic field from the current of the magnetic coils. The elimination of the eddy effect will play a key role in any experiments that are motivated to measure the magnetic field to the precision of a parts per million stability. Here, we apply a method to correct the eddy effect for precision measurement of the magnetic field. We first record the three-body loss influenced by the induced eddy effect, then we use a first-order decay model to obtain the time constant of the actual magnetic field by fitting the atom loss. This precisely determines the actual magnetic field according to the time response of the three-body loss. After that, we implement the desired magnetic field to the atoms so that we can analyze the three-body loss across the narrow Feshbach resonance. The measured magnetic-field-dependent rate of three-body loss at an ultralow temperature shows that the three-body recombination is the dominated loss mechanism near the resonance. We expect this practical method of correcting the eddy effect error of the magnetic field can be further applied to future studies of quantum few- and many-body physics near a narrow Feshbach resonance.

Optical focusing of Bose-Einstein condensates

We theoretically investigate the optical focusing of a rubidium Bose-Einstein condensate onto a planar surface. Our analysis uses a Gaussian variational method that includes the effects of two-body atom-atom interactions and three-body recombination losses. The essential factors such as the width, peak density and atom loss rate of the focused BEC profile on the surface are investigated and compared to Gross-Pitaevskii numerical simulations. We find a reasonable agreement in the results between our analytical approach and the numerical simulations. Our analysis predicts that condensates of $10^5$ atoms could be focused down to $\sim 10$nm widths, potentially allowing nanometer-scale atomic deposition with peak densities greater than $10^5$ atoms/$\mu$m$^2$.

Tunable Three-Body Loss in a Nonlinear Rydberg Medium.

Long-range Rydberg interactions, in combination with electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT), give rise to strongly interacting photons where the strength, sign, and form of the interactions are widely tunable and controllable. Such control can be applied to both coherent and dissipative interactions, which provides the potential for generating novel few-photon states. Recently it has been shown that Rydberg-EIT is a rare system in which three-body interactions can be as strong or stronger than two-body interactions. In this work, we study three-body scattering loss for Rydberg-EIT in a wide regime of single and two-photon detunings. Our numerical simulations of the full three-body wave function and analytical estimates based on Fermi's golden rule strongly suggest that the observed features in the outgoing photonic correlations are caused by the resonant enhancement of the three-body losses.

Production of 23Na Bose–Einstein condensates in the F = 2 state using D2 gray molasses

We report on the production of Bose–Einstein condensates of sodium atoms in the hyperfine state | F = 2 , m F = 2 ⟩ in a crossed optical dipole trap using D 2 gray molasses. We use the gray molasses sub-Doppler cooling technique to obtain an atomic sample of 3 × 10 8 at 56 µK. After the radio frequency (RF) evaporation cooling in an optically plugged magnetic trap, we transfer the atoms sample of 2.5 × 10 6 at 5.7 µK to a crossed optical dipole trap where a pure condensate with an atom number of 2 × 10 5 and lifetime of 6.3 s is obtained by further evaporation. We compare the cooling process of sodium atoms in the | 2 , 2 ⟩ and the | 1 , 1 ⟩ states by evaporation in the optical trap, and also observe the different three-body loss rates by the lifetime measurement.

Beyond-mean-field crossover from one dimension to three dimensions in quantum droplets of binary mixtures

The existence of quantum droplets in binary Bose-Einstein condensate mixtures relies on beyond-mean-field effects, competing with mean-field effects. Interestingly, the beyond-mean-field effects change from repulsive in three dimensions (3D) to attractive in 1D leading to drastically different behaviors. We quantitatively model quantum droplets in the beyond-mean-field crossover from 1D to 3D in the relevant case of an elongated harmonic trap and give realistic numbers for experimental realizations. We identify and quantify two main limiting factors: three-body losses and tiny energy scales. The crossover region is appealing as it offers a trade-off between these two main limitations opening the possibility of observing stable flat-top density profiles, a yet unobserved, characteristic feature of quantum droplets. It would permit testing of beyond-mean-field theories to an unprecedented precision.

Self-Evaporation Dynamics of Quantum Droplets in a 41K-87Rb Mixture

We theoretically investigate the self-evaporation dynamics of quantum droplets in a 41K-87Rb mixture, in free-space. The dynamical formation of the droplet and the effects related to the presence of three-body losses are analyzed by means of numerical simulations. We identify a regime of parameters allowing for the observation of the droplet self-evaporation in a feasible experimental setup.

Soliton dynamics of a high-density Bose-Einstein condensate subject to a time varying anharmonic trap

In this paper we study the soliton dynamics of a high-density Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) subject to a time-oscillating trap. The behavior of the BEC is described with a modified Gross-Pitaevskii equation (mGPE) which takes into account three-body losses, atomic feeding and quantum fluctuations (up to a novel high-density term). A variational approximation (VA) is used to study the behavior of a Gaussian pulse in a static double-well potential. Direct numerical solutions of the mGPE corroborate that the center of the pulse exhibits an oscillatory behavior (as the VA predicts), and show a novel phenomenon of fragmentation and regeneration (FR). It is shown that this FR process is destroyed if we consider a potential with a time-dependent quadratic term, but the FR survives if the time dependence is introduced in a cubic term. Comparison between the VA and the numerical solution revealed an excellent agreement when the oscillations of the pulse remain in one of the potential wells. The effects of the quantum fluctuating terms on the FR process are studied. Finally, variational results using a supergaussian trial function are obtained.

Collisional Loss of One-Dimensional Fermions Near a p-Wave Feshbach Resonance.

We study collisional loss of a quasi-one-dimensional spin-polarized Fermi gas near a p-wave Feshbach resonance in ultracold ^{6}Li atoms. We measure the location of the p-wave resonance in quasi-1D and observe a confinement-induced shift and broadening. We find that the three-body loss coefficient L_{3} as a function of the quasi-1D confinement has little dependence on confinement strength. We also analyze the atom loss with a two-step cascade three-body loss model in which weakly bound dimers are formed prior to their loss arising from atom-dimer collisions. Our data are consistent with this model. We also find a possible suppression in the rate of dimer relaxation with strong quasi-1D confinement. We discuss the implications of these measurements for observing p-wave pairing in quasi-1D.

Mesoscopic quantum superposition states of weakly-coupled matter-wave solitons

The Josephson junctions (JJs) are at the heart of modern quantum technologies and metrology. In this work we establish quantum features of an atomic soliton Josephson junction (SJJ) device, which consists of two weakly-coupled condensates with negative scattering length. The condensates are trapped in a double-well potential and elongated in one dimension. Starting with classical field theory we map for the first time a two-soliton problem onto the effective two-mode Hamiltonian and perform a second quantization procedure. Compared to the conventional bosonic Josephson junction condensate system, we show that the SJJ-model in quantum domain exhibits unusual features due to its effective nonlinear strength proportional to the square of total particle number, N2. A novel self-tuning effect for the effective tunneling parameter is also demonstrated in the SJJ-model, which depends on the particle number and rapidly vanishes as the JJ population imbalance increases. The formation of entangled Fock state superposition is predicted for the quantum SJJ-model, revealing dominant N00N-state components at the ‘edges’ for n = 0, N particle number. We have shown that the obtained quantum state is more resistant to few particle losses from the condensates if tiny components of entangled Fock states are present in the vicinity of the major N00N-state component. This peculiarity of the quantum SJJ-model establishes an important difference from its semiclassical analogue obtained in the framework of Hartree approach. Our results are confirmed by studying the first and N-order Hillery–Zubairy criteria applied for studying multiparticle entanglement and planar spin squeezing. The Einstein–Podolsky–Rosen quantum steering represents an important prerequisite for the crossover to the mesoscopic superposition Schrödinger-cat and/or N00N-states. The feasibility in observation for these predicted states of the SJJ-model in the experiments is also discussed by taking into account one- and three-body losses for lithium condensates.

Collisionally Inhomogeneous Bose-Einstein Condensates with a Linear Interaction Gradient.

We study the evolution of a collisionally inhomogeneous matter wave in a spatial gradient of the interaction strength. Starting with a Bose-Einstein condensate with weak repulsive interactions in quasi-one-dimensional geometry, we monitor the evolution of a matter wave that simultaneously extends into spatial regions with attractive and repulsive interactions. We observe the formation and the decay of solitonlike density peaks, counterpropagating self-interfering wave packets, and the creation of cascades of solitons. The matter-wave dynamics is well reproduced in numerical simulations based on the nonpolynomial Schrödinger equation with three-body loss, allowing us to better understand the underlying behavior based on a wavelet transformation. Our analysis provides new understanding of collapse processes for solitons, and opens interesting connections to other nonlinear instabilities.

Experimental conditions for obtaining halo p -wave dimers in quasi-one-dimension

We calculate the binding energy and closed-channel fraction of $p$-wave Feshbach molecules in quasi-one-dimension (quasi-1D) by examining the poles of the $p$-wave $S$ matrix. We show that under the right experimental conditions, the quasi-1D $p$-wave molecule behaves like a halo dimer with a closed-channel fraction approaching 0 at resonance and a binding energy following the universal relation ${E}_{b}\ensuremath{\sim}1/{a}_{1\mathrm{D}}^{2}$, where ${a}_{1\mathrm{D}}$ is the 1D scattering length. We calculate these experimental conditions for both $^{6}\mathrm{Li}$ and $^{40}\mathrm{K}$ over a range of transverse confinements. We expect that in this halo dimer regime the three-body loss associated with the $p$-wave Feshbach resonance will be greatly suppressed, potentially allowing for a stable $p$-wave superfluid to be created. For an easy comparison between the three-dimensional and the quasi-1D cases, we provide the same pole analysis of the Feshbach molecules applied to the three-dimensional $p$-wave resonance and show that there is a qualitative difference between the two.

Interplay between coherent and dissipative dynamics of bosonic doublons in an optical lattice

We observe the dissipative dynamics of a dense, strongly interacting gas of bosonic atom pairs in an optical lattice, controlling the strength of the two-body interactions over a wide parameter regime. We study how three-body losses contribute to the lattice dynamics, addressing a number of open questions related to the effects of strong dissipation in a many-body system, including the relationship to the continuous quantum Zeno effect. We observe rapid break-up of bound pairs for weak interactions, and for stronger interactions we see doublon decay rates that are asymmetric when changing from attractive and repulsive interactions, and which strongly depend on the interactions and on-site loss rates. By comparing our experimental data with a theoretical analysis of few-body dynamics, we show that these features originate from a non-trivial combination of dissipative dynamics described by a lattice model beyond a standard Bose-Hubbard Hamiltonian, and the modification of three-atom dynamics on a single site, which is generated alongside strong three-body loss. Our results open new possibilities for investigating bosonic atoms with strong three-body loss features, and allow for the better understanding of the parameter regimes that are required to realize strong effective three-body interactions.