p-Wave Cold Collisions in an Optical Lattice Clock

Published

September 2, 2011

Author(s)

Nathan D. Lemke, Andrew D. Ludlow, J. von Stecher, Jeffrey A. Sherman, A.M. Rey, Christopher W. Oates

Abstract

State-of-the-art optical clocks with neutral atoms employ an optical lattice to tightly confine the atoms, enabling high-resolution spectroscopy and the potential for high-accuracy timekeeping. Interrogating many atoms simultaneously facilitates high measurement precision, but also yields high atomic density and the potential for cold collisions. To suppress these atom-atom interactions, the use of ultracold, spin-polarized fermions was proposed to exploit the Fermi suppression of s-wave collisions while freezing out higher-wave contributions. However, small collision shifts have been measured in Sr and Yb. For Sr, the shifts were attributed to s-wave interactions enabled by excitation inhomogeneity. Here, we report definitive experimental evidence and a quantitative theoretical treatment of p-wave collisions in Yb. We also demonstrate a novel suppression of the collisional frequency shift utilizing strong interactions in a two-dimensional optical lattice. Understanding these interactions and dynamics for two-valence-electron atoms is fundamental for the development of quantum information and computation protocols and simulation of condensed matter many-body Hamiltonians.

Citation

Nature Physics

Volume

107

Pub Type

Journals

Keywords

Lasers, spectroscopy

Citation

Lemke, N. , Ludlow, A. , von, J. , Sherman, J. , Rey, A. and Oates, C. (2011), p-Wave Cold Collisions in an Optical Lattice Clock, Nature Physics (Accessed October 10, 2025)