Feshbach-Resonance-Enhanced Coherent Atom-Molecule Conversion with Ultra-Narrow Photoassociation Resonance

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates the creation of Feshbach molecules in ultracold ytterbium atoms using ultra-narrow photoassociation resonances, enabling precise control of atom-molecule conversion.

Contribution

It reveals high-density Feshbach resonances in $^{171}$Yb and achieves coherent atom-molecule conversion via enhanced photoassociation, a novel approach for optical Feshbach resonances.

Findings

Observation of Rabi oscillations between atom pairs and molecules.

Precise measurement of binding energies of Feshbach resonances.

Potential for practical optical Feshbach resonance applications.

Abstract

We reveal the existence of high-density Feshbach resonances in the collision between the ground and metastable states of $^{171}$Yb and coherently produce the associated Feshbach molecules by photoassociation. The extremely small transition rate is overcome by the enhanced Franck-Condon factor of the weakly bound Feshbach molecule, allowing us to observe Rabi oscillations with long decay time between an atom pair and a molecule in an optical lattice. We also perform the precision measurement of the binding energies, which characterizes the observed resonances. The ultra-narrow photoassociation will be a basis for practical implementation of optical Feshbach resonances.