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Coherent Molecule Formation in Anharmonic Potentials Near Confinement-Induced Resonances

2013; American Physical Society; Volume: 110; Issue: 20 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1103/physrevlett.110.203202

1092-0145

Simon Sala, G. Zürn, Thomas Lompe, A. N. Wenz, Simon Murmann, Friedhelm Serwane, Selim Jochim, Alejandro Sáenz,

Laser-Matter Interactions and Applications

We perform a theoretical and experimental study of a system of two ultracold atoms with tunable interaction in an elongated trapping potential. We show that the coupling of center-of-mass and relative motion due to an anharmonicity of the trapping potential leads to a coherent coupling of a state of an unbound atom pair and a molecule with a center of mass excitation. By performing the experiment with exactly two particles we exclude three-body losses and can therefore directly observe coherent molecule formation. We find quantitative agreement between our theory of inelastic confinement-induced resonances and the experimental results. This shows that the effects of center-of-mass to relative-motion coupling can have a significant impact on the physics of quantum systems near center-of-mass to relative-motion coupling resonances.