Tunneling of two interacting atoms from excited states

TL;DR

This paper investigates how two interacting atoms tunnel from excited states, revealing how their decay rates and tunneling behavior depend on interaction strength and external barriers, with implications for quantum control.

Contribution

It introduces a detailed analysis of pair tunneling dynamics for two interacting atoms in excited states, highlighting the transition from uncorrelated to correlated tunneling regimes.

Findings

Decay rate varies monotonically and non-monotonically with interaction strength

Transition from uncorrelated to correlated pair tunneling observed

Results relate to experiments with $^6$Li atoms in traps

Abstract

We consider tunneling of two interacting atoms with an even spatial symmetry. The atoms are prepared in two lowest excited states with respect to relative and center-of-mass motions. We observe monotonic and non-monotonic dependence of the decay rate of the total probability as a function of the interatomic coupling strength $g$. We find a transition from uncorrelated to correlated pair tunneling as a function of $g$ and an external trap barrier. The similar system has been investigated for two interacting $^6$Li atoms in the deterministic Heidelberg experiment.