Observation of a broad state-to-state spin-exchange collision near a p-wave Feshbach resonances of $^6$Li atoms

TL;DR

This paper reports the observation of spin-exchange collisions near a p-wave Feshbach resonance in $^6$Li atoms, revealing broad resonance profiles with low inelastic rates, advancing the understanding of p-wave interactions in quantum gases.

Contribution

It provides the first experimental observation of spin-exchange collisions near a p-wave Feshbach resonance in $^6$Li, with theoretical analysis of scattering properties and resonance characteristics.

Findings

Spin-exchange collision observed over a 10 G range.

Broad p-wave resonance with low inelastic collision rate.

Potential for creating long-lived, strongly interacting p-wave Fermi gases.

Abstract

The study of state-to-state spin-exchange collisions in the vicinity of $p$-wave Feshbach resonances offer great opportunities to explore many-body interactions and novel quantum phases. Here, we report the observation of a spin-exchange collision near a $p$-wave Feshbach resonance within a mixture of the lowest and third-lowest hyperfine states of $^6$Li atoms. The spin-exchange interaction is observed over a range of ten gausses and produces a pair of atoms in the second-lowest hyperfine states that are captured by a deep optical dipole trap. We apply a coupled-channel method to calculate the scattering properties of this system. We find that the $p$-wave resonance exhibits a low inelastic collision rate and a broad resonance profile, which is due to the modification by the accompanying spin-exchange collisions. These findings open up new possibilities for the creation of long-lived, strongly interacting $p$-wave Fermi gases.