Neil R. Claussen

Stable (85)Rb Bose-Einstein Condensates with Widely Tunable Interactions

Bose-Einstein condensation has been achieved in a magnetically trapped sample of 85Rb atoms. Long-lived condensates of up to 10(4) atoms have been produced by using a magnetic-field-induced Feshbach resonance to reverse the sign of the scattering length. This system provides new opportunities for the study of condensate physics. The variation of the scattering length near the resonance has been used to magnetically tune the condensate self-interaction energy over a wide range, extending from strong repulsive to large attractive interactions. When the interactions were switched from repulsive to attractive, the condensate shrank to below our resolution limit, and after approximately 5 ms emitted a burst of high-energy atoms.

Dynamics of collapsing and exploding Bose–Einstein condensates

When atoms in a gas are cooled to extremely low temperatures, they will—under the appropriate conditions—condense into a single quantum-mechanical state known as a Bose–Einstein condensate. In such systems, quantum-mechanical behaviour is evident on a macroscopic scale. Here we explore the dynamics of how a Bose–Einstein condensate collapses and subsequently explodes when the balance of forces governing its size and shape is suddenly altered. A condensates equilibrium size and shape is strongly affected by the interatomic interactions. Our ability to induce a collapse by switching the interactions from repulsive to attractive by tuning an externally applied magnetic field yields detailed information on the violent collapse process. We observe anisotropic atom bursts that explode from the condensate, atoms leaving the condensate in undetected forms, spikes appearing in the condensate wavefunction and oscillating remnant condensates that survive the collapse. All these processes have curious dependences on time, on the strength of the interaction and on the number of condensate atoms. Although the system would seem to be simple and well characterized, our measurements reveal many phenomena that challenge theoretical models.

Atom-molecule coherence in a Bose-Einstein condensate

Recent advances in the precise control of ultracold atomic systems have led to the realisation of Bose–Einstein condensates (BECs) and degenerate Fermi gases. An important challenge is to extend this level of control to more complicated molecular systems. One route for producing ultracold molecules is to form them from the atoms in a BEC. For example, a two-photon stimulated Raman transition in a 87Rb BEC has been used to produce 87Rb2 molecules in a single rotational-vibrational state, and ultracold molecules have also been formed through photoassociation of a sodium BEC. Although the coherence properties of such systems have not hitherto been probed, the prospect of creating a superposition of atomic and molecular condensates has initiated much theoretical work. Here we make use of a time-varying magnetic field near a Feshbach resonance to produce coherent coupling between atoms and molecules in a 85Rb BEC. A mixture of atomic and molecular states is created and probed by sudden changes in the magnetic field, which lead to oscillations in the number of atoms that remain in the condensate. The oscillation frequency, measured over a large range of magnetic fields, is in excellent agreement with the theoretical molecular binding energy, indicating that we have created a quantum superposition of atoms and diatomic molecules—two chemically different species.

Controlled Collapse of a Bose-Einstein Condensate

The point of instability of a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) due to attractive interactions was studied. Stable 85Rb BECs were created and then caused to collapse by slowly changing the atom-atom interaction from repulsive to attractive using a Feshbach resonance. At a critical value, an abrupt transition was observed in which atoms were ejected from the condensate. By measuring the onset of this transition as a function of number and attractive interaction strength, we determined the stability condition to be N(absolute value of a) / a(ho) = 0.459+/-0.012+/-0.054, slightly lower than the predicted value of 0.574.

Magnetic Field Dependence of Ultracold Inelastic Collisions near a Feshbach Resonance

Inelastic collision rates for ultracold 85Rb atoms in the F = 2, m(f) = -2 state have been measured as a function of magnetic field. At 250 gauss (G), the two- and three-body loss rates were measured to be K2 = (1.87+/-0.95+/-0.19)x10(-14) cm(3)/s and K3 = (4.24(+0. 70)(-0.29)+/-0.85)x10(-25) cm(6)/s, respectively. As the magnetic field is decreased from 250 G towards a Feshbach resonance at 155 G, the inelastic rates decrease to a minimum and then increase dramatically, peaking at the Feshbach resonance. Both two- and three-body losses are important, and individual contributions have been compared with theory.

Very-high-precision bound-state spectroscopy near a 85Rb Feshbach resonance

We precisely measured the binding energy ɛbind) of a molecular stale near the Feshbach resonance In a 85Rb Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC). Rapid magnetic-field pulses induced coherent atom-molecule oscillations in the BEC. We measured the oscillation frequency as a function B tield and fit the data TO a coupled-channel model. Our analysis constrained the Feshbach resonance position [155.041(18) Gl, width 10.71(2; G] and background scattering length [-443[3]a0] and yielded new values fur the Rb interaction parameters. These results improved our estimate lor the stability condition of an attractive BEC. We also found evidence for a mean-field shift to ɛbind.

Microscopic Dynamics in a Strongly Interacting Bose-Einstein Condensate

An initially stable 85Rb Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) was subjected to a carefully controlled magnetic field pulse near a Feshbach resonance. This pulse probed the strongly interacting regime for the BEC, with the diluteness parameter (na(3)) ranging from 0.01 to 0.5. Condensate number loss resulted from the pulse, and for triangular pulses shorter than 1 ms, decreasing the pulse length actually increased the loss, until very short time scales (approximately 10 micros) were reached. The observed time dependence is very different from that expected in traditional inelastic loss processes, suggesting the presence of new microscopic BEC physics.

Improved characterization of elastic scattering near a Feshbach resonance in 85Rb.

We report extensions and corrections to the measurement of the Feshbach resonance in 85Rb cold atom collisions reported earlier [J. L. Roberts et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 81, 5109 (1998)]. In addition to a better determination of the position of the resonance peak [154.9(4) G] and its width [11.0(4) G], improvements in our techniques now allow the measurement of the absolute size of the elastic-scattering rate. This provides a measure of the s-wave scattering length as a function of magnetic field near the Feshbach resonance and constrains the Rb-Rb interaction potential.

85Rb BEC near a Feshback resonance

Bose-Einstein condensation has been achieved in a magnetically trapped sample of 85Rb atoms. Stable condensates of up to 104 atoms have been created by using a magnetic-field-induced Feshbach resonance to reverse the sign of the zero-field scattering length. These condensates provide unique opportunities for the study of BEC physics. The variation of the scattering length near the resonance has been used to magnetically tune the condensate self-interaction energy over a very wide range. This range extended from very strong repulsive self-interactions to large attractive ones. The effect of moving the condensate through the Feshbach resonance has been studied and compared with theory. Long-lived metastable condensates with attractive interactions have been produced near the zero of the Feshbach resonance. The transition from repulsive to attractive interactions can lead to a “collapse” of the condensate in which the cloud shrinks below our resolution limit, loses a significant number of atoms due to inelas...

Atom—Molecule Coherence Near a Feshbach Resonance in a Bose-Einstein Condensate

Atom–molecule coherence in a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) has been demonstrated. Sudden changes were made to the magnetic field near a Feshbach resonance such that oscillations between atomic and molecular states were excited. The frequency of these oscillations was measured over a large range of magnetic fields and was found to be in excellent quantitative agreement with the predicted energy difference between two colliding atoms and the bound molecular state. This agreement indicates that we have created a quantum superposition of atoms and diatomic molecules, which are chemically different species.