Resonant Control of Interaction Between Different Electronic States
Abstract
We observe a magnetic Feshbach resonance in a collision between the ground and metastable states of two-electron atoms of ytterbium (Yb). We measure the on-site interaction of doubly-occupied sites of an atomic Mott insulator state in a three-dimensional optical lattice as a collisional frequency shift in a high-resolution laser spectroscopy. The observed spectra are well fitted by a simple theoretical formula, in which two particles with an s-wave contact interaction are confined in a harmonic trap. This analysis reveals a wide variation of the interaction with a resonance behavior around a magnetic field of about 1.1 Gauss for the energetically lowest magnetic sublevel of Yb, as well as around 360 mG for the energetically highest magnetic sublevel of Yb. The observed Feshbach resonance can only be induced by an anisotropic inter-atomic interaction. This novel scheme will open the door to a variety of study using two-electron atoms with tunable interaction.
Cite
@article{arxiv.1210.2483,
title = {Resonant Control of Interaction Between Different Electronic States},
author = {Shinya Kato and Seiji Sugawa and Kosuke Shibata and Ryuta Yamamoto and Yoshiro Takahashi},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1210.2483},
year = {2013}
}
Comments
5 pages, 5 figures