Christopher Ticknor

Creation of ultracold molecules from a Fermi gas of atoms

Following the realization of Bose–Einstein condensates in atomic gases, an experimental challenge is the production of molecular gases in the quantum regime. A promising approach is to create the molecular gas directly from an ultracold atomic gas; for example, bosonic atoms in a Bose-Einstein condensate have been coupled to electronic ground-state molecules through photoassociation or a magnetic field Feshbach resonance. The availability of atomic Fermi gases offers the prospect of coupling fermionic atoms to bosonic molecules, thus altering the quantum statistics of the system. Such a coupling would be closely related to the pairing mechanism in a fermionic superfluid, predicted to occur near a Feshbach resonance. Here we report the creation and quantitative characterization of ultracold 40K2 molecules. Starting with a quantum degenerate Fermi gas of atoms at a temperature of less than 150 nK, we scan the system over a Feshbach resonance to create adiabatically more than 250,000 trapped molecules; these can be converted back to atoms by reversing the scan. The small binding energy of the molecules is controlled by detuning the magnetic field away from the Feshbach resonance, and can be varied over a wide range. We directly detect these weakly bound molecules through their radio-frequency photodissociation spectra; these probe the molecular wavefunction, and yield binding energies that are consistent with theory.

Tuning p-wave interactions in an ultracold Fermi gas of atoms.

We have measured a p-wave Feshbach resonance in a single-component, ultracold Fermi gas of 40K atoms. We have used this resonance to enhance the normally suppressed p-wave collision cross section to values larger than the background s-wave cross section between 40K atoms in different spin states. In addition to the modification of two-body elastic processes, the resonance dramatically enhances three-body inelastic collisional loss.

Resonant control of elastic collisions in an optically trapped Fermi gas of atoms

We have loaded an ultracold gas of fermionic atoms into a far-off resonance optical dipole trap and precisely controlled the spin composition of the trapped gas. We have measured a magnetic-field Feshbach resonance between atoms in the two lowest energy spin states, /9/2,-9/2> and /9/2,-7/2>. The resonance peaks at a magnetic field of 201.5+/-1.4 G and has a width of 8.0+/-1.1 G. Using this resonance, we have changed the elastic collision cross section in the gas by nearly 3 orders of magnitude.

Observation of heteronuclear feshbach resonances in a mixture of bosons and fermions

Three magnetic-field induced heteronuclear Feshbach resonances were identified in collisions between bosonic 87Rb and fermionic 40K atoms in their absolute ground states. Strong inelastic loss from an optically trapped mixture was observed at the resonance positions of 492, 512, and 543+/-2 G. The magnetic-field locations of these resonances place a tight constraint on the triplet and singlet cross-species scattering lengths, yielding (-281+/-15)a(0) and (-54+/-12)a(0), respectively. The width of the loss feature at 543 G is 3.7+/-1.5 G wide; this broad Feshbach resonance should enable experimental control of the interspecies interactions.

Multiplet structure of Feshbach resonances in nonzero partial waves

We report a unique feature of magnetic-field Feshbach resonances in which atoms collide with nonzero orbital angular momentum. p-wave (l=1) Feshbach resonances are split into two components depending on the magnitude of the resonant states projection of orbital angular momentum onto the field axis. This splitting is due to the magnetic dipole-dipole interaction between the atoms and it offers a means to tune anisotropic interactions of an ultracold gas of atoms. Furthermore this splitting in the p-wave Feshbach resonance has been experimentally observed and is reported. A parametrization of the p-wave resonance in terms of an effective-range expansion is given.

Production of cold formaldehyde molecules for study and control of chemical reaction dynamics with hydroxyl radicals

We propose a method for controlling a class of low temperature chemical reactions. Specifically, we show the hydrogen abstraction channel in the reaction of formaldehyde (H{sub 2}CO) and the hydroxyl radical (OH) can be controlled through either the molecular state or an external electric field. We also outline experiments for investigating and demonstrating control over this important reaction. To this end, we report the first Stark deceleration of H{sub 2}CO. We have decelerated a molecular beam of H{sub 2}CO essentially to rest, producing molecules at 100 mK with a density of {approx} 10{sup 6} cm{sup -3}.

Anisotropic Superfluidity in a Dipolar Bose Gas

We study the superfluid character of a dipolar Bose-Einstein condensate (DBEC) in a quasi-two dimensional geometry. We consider the dipole polarization to have some nonzero projection into the plane of the condensate so that the effective interaction is anisotropic in this plane, yielding an anisotropic dispersion relation. By performing direct numerical simulations of a probe moving through the DBEC, we observe the sudden onset of drag or creation of vortex-antivortex pairs at critical velocities that depend strongly on the direction of the probes motion. This anisotropy emerges because of the anisotropic manifestation of a rotonlike mode in the system.

Quasi-universal dipolar scattering in cold and ultracold gases

We investigate the scattering cross section of aligned dipolar molecules in low-temperature gases. Over a wide range of collision energies relevant to contemporary experiments, the cross section declines in inverse proportion to the collision speed, and is given nearly exactly by a simple semiclassical formula. At yet lower energies, the cross section becomes independent of energy, and is reproduced within the Born approximation to within corrections due to the s-wave scattering length. While these behaviors are universal for all polar molecules, nevertheless interesting deviations from universality are expected to occur in the intermediate energy range.

Structure formation during the collapse of a dipolar atomic Bose-Einstein condensate

We investigate the collapse of a trapped dipolar Bose-Einstein condensate. This is performed by numerical simulations of the Gross-Pitaevskii equation and the novel application of the Thomas-Fermi hydrodynamic equations to collapse. We observe regimes of both global collapse, where the system evolves to a highly elongated or flattened state depending on the sign of the dipolar interaction, and local collapse, which arises due to dynamically unstable phonon modes and leads to a periodic arrangement of density shells, disks or stripes. In the adiabatic regime, where ground states are followed, collapse can occur globally or locally, while in the non-adiabatic regime, where collapse is initiated suddenly, local collapse commonly occurs. We analyse the dependence on the dipolar interactions and trap geometry, the length and time scales for collapse, and relate our findings to recent experiments.

Influence of magnetic fields on cold collisions of polar molecules

We consider cold collisions of OH molecules in the {sup 2}{pi}{sub 3/2} ground state, under the influence of a magnetic field. We find that modest fields of several thousand gauss can act to suppress inelastic collisions of weak-field-seeking states by two orders of magnitude. We attribute this suppression to two factors: (i) an indirect coupling of the entrance and the exit channel, in contrast to the effect of an applied electric field; and (ii) the relative shift of the entrance and exit scattering thresholds. In view of these results, magnetic trapping of OH may prove feasible.