Control of Spin-Exchange Interaction between Alkali-Earth Atoms via Confinement-Induced Resonances in a Quasi 1+0 Dimensional System

TL;DR

This paper investigates how confinement-induced resonances can be used to control spin-exchange interactions between ultracold alkali-earth atoms in a quasi-1D system, with exact solutions beyond the pure-1D approximation.

Contribution

It provides an exact solution for the scattering problem in a quasi-1D + quasi-0D system and links experimental resonances to specific confinement-induced resonances.

Findings

CIRs can be controlled by confinement lengths.

Resonance locations depend on the ratio of axial to transverse confinement.

Experimental resonances correspond to even-wave and odd-wave CIRs.

Abstract

A nuclear-spin exchange interaction exists between two ultracold fermionic alkali-earth (like) atoms in the electronic $^{1}{\rm S}_{0}$ state ($g$-state) and $^{3}{\rm P}_{0}$ state ($e$-state), and is an essential ingredient for the quantum simulation of Kondo effect. We study the control of this spin-exchange interaction for two atoms simultaneously confined in a quasi-one-dimensional (quasi-1D) tube, where the $g$-atom is freely moving in the axial direction while the $e$-atom is further localized by an additional axial trap and behaves as a quasi-zero-dimensional (quasi-0D) impurity. In this system, the two atoms experience effective-1D spin-exchange interactions in both even and odd partial wave channels, whose intensities can be controlled by the characteristic lengths of the confinements via the confinement-induced-resonances (CIRs). In current work, we go beyond that pure-1D approximation. We model the transverse and axial confinements by harmonic traps with finite characteristic lengths $a_\perp$ and $a_z$, respectively, and exactly solve the "quasi-1D + quasi-0D" scattering problem between these two atoms. Using the solutions we derive the effective 1D spin-exchange interaction and investigate the locations and widths of the even/odd wave CIRs for our system. It is found that when the ratio $a_z/a_\perp$ is larger, the CIRs can be induced by weaker confinements, which are easier to be realized experimentally. The comparison between our results and the recent experiment shows that the two experimentally observed resonance branches of the spin-exchange effect are due to an even-wave CIR and an odd-wave CIR, respectively. Our results are advantageous for the control and description of either the effective spin-exchange interaction or other types of interactions between ultracold atoms in quasi 1+0 dimensional systems.