Imaging of s and d partial-wave interference in quantum scattering of identical bosonic atoms

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates direct imaging of s and d partial-wave interference in ultracold Rb87 atom collisions, revealing how scattering patterns evolve near a d-wave shape resonance, advancing understanding of quantum scattering phenomena.

Contribution

It provides the first direct imaging of s and d partial-wave interference in cold atom collisions, with a simple model explaining the observed scattering patterns near a resonance.

Findings

Clear visualization of s and d wave interference patterns.

Energy-dependent evolution of scattering halos.

Validation of a simple theoretical model for partial-wave scattering.

Abstract

We report on the direct imaging of s and d partial-wave interference in cold collisions of atoms. Two ultracold clouds of Rb87 atoms were accelerated by magnetic fields to collide at energies near a d-wave shape resonance. The resulting halos of scattered particles were imaged using laser absorption. By scanning across the resonance we observed a marked evolution of the scattering patterns due to the energy dependent phase shifts for the interfering s and d waves. Since only two partial wave states are involved in the collision process the scattering yield and angular distributions have a simple interpretation in terms of a theoretical model.