Atom Loss and the Formation of a Molecular Bose-Einstein Condensate by Feshbach Resonance

Published

October 1, 2000

Author(s)

V Yurovsky, A Ben-Reuven, Paul S. Julienne, Carl J. Williams

Abstract

In experiments conducted recently at MIT on Na Bose-Einstein condensates [S. Inouye et al. Nature 392. 151 (1998): J. Stenger et al, Phys. Rev. Lett. 82. 2422 (1999)], large loss rates were observed when a time-varying magnetic field was used to tune a molecular Feshbach resonance state near the state of a pair of atoms in the condensate. A collisional deactivation mechanism [see V. A. Yurovsky, A. Ben-Reuven, P.S. Julienne and C.J. Williams, Phys. Rev. A 60, R765 (1999)], studied here in more detail, accounts for the results of the slow-sweep experiments. A best fit to the MIT data yields a rate coefficient for deactivating atom-molecule collisions of 1.6x10^-10 cm3/8. In the case of the fast sweep experiment, a study was carried out of the combined effect of two competing mechanisms, the three-atom (atom-molecule) or four-atom (molecule-molecule) collisional deactivation versus a process of two-atom trap-state excitation by curve crossing. It is shown that both mechanisms contribute to the loss comparably and nonadditively.

Citation

Physical Review A (Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics)

Volume

Vo. 62

Issue

No. 4

Pub Type

Journals

Keywords

Bose-Einstein condensate, cold atomic collisions, coupled Gross-Pitaevskii equations, Feshbach resonance, sodium

Citation

Yurovsky, V. , Ben-Reuven, A. , Julienne, P. and Williams, C. (2000), Atom Loss and the Formation of a Molecular Bose-Einstein Condensate by Feshbach Resonance, Physical Review A (Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics) (Accessed October 9, 2025)