BEC of 6 Li 2 molecules: Exploring the BEC-BCS crossover

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1 Institut für Experimentalphysik Universität Innsbruck Dresden, BEC of 6 Li 2 molecules: Exploring the BEC-BCS crossover Johannes Hecker Denschlag

2 The lithium team Selim Jochim Markus Bartenstein Alexander Altmeyer Stefan Riedl Reece Geursen Cheng Chin Johannes Hecker Denschlag Rudi Grimm

3 fermion + fermion = boson 1/2 1/2 boson

4 BEC BCS crossover molecules strong coupling crossover Cooper pairs weak coupling interaction control via Feshbach resonance degenerate Fermi gas high T C superconductivity, neutron stars, 3 He superfluidity, nuclear physics

5 6 Li in Innsbruck Bose-Einstein Condensation of 6 Li 2 production of molecules cooling to condensation Exploring the BEC-BCS cross-over (varying particle interaction) studied cloud size excitation of collective oscillations pairing gap --- pairing of fermions Location of the Feshbach resonance rf spectroscopy

6 Two Component Ultracold Li Atoms 50% - 50% mixture of 6 Li atoms in the lowest two ground states 6 Li ground state in a magnetic field B field Special features: Stable against two-body decay Feshbach resonance fl tunable interaction Energy / h (MHz) F = 3/2 F = 1/ Magnetic field (G) m F 6> 3/2 5> 1/2 4> -1/2 3> -3/2 2> -1/2 1> 1/2

7 Feshbach Resonance scattering length (1000 a 0 ) magnetic field (G) 834.1(1.5) G in collab. with A. Simoni, E. Tiesinga, C. Williams, P. Julienne prediction: M. Houbiers et al., PRA 57, R1497 (1998). weakly bound state (molecule) no bound state, only Fermi gas

8 6 Li 2 molecules molecules Fermi gas E B 2 h = ma binding energy at 764G ~ k B 2µK Size of the molecules ~ a 2 binding energy [µk k B ] 0 molecular state continuum Magnetic field [G] 10 billion times weaker than normal molecules

9 three-body recombination molecules made by collisions three atoms three- body process atom U(r) molecule binding energy E b r

10 molecule formation B = 690 G: mol. bind. energy E b = k B 18µK >> therm. energy k B T = k B 2.5µK atom number (10 4 ) N at +2N mol N at 2N mol time (s) Long lifetimes!! S. Jochim et al. PRL 91, (2003)

11 molecule-molecule collisions U(r) Feshbach molecule in last bound level r E kin short lifetimes ~ 1 ms for molecules from bosons MIT (Na 2 ), MPQ (Rb 2 ), Ibk (Cs 2 ) long lifetimes (~ 10 s) for molecules from fermions explanation (Petrov et al., cond-mat/ ): Pauli blocking in inelastic molecule-molecule collisions

12 Get BEC with evaporative cooling!!! optical dipole trap precise control of laser power 10 W few 100µW forced evaporation

13 Evaporative cooling reduce trap depth in 2s by four orders of magnitude! evaporation time 1.3 s 1.5 s 1.8 s 2.0 s 700 µm density distribution 676G excellent starting point for further experiments BEC thermal cloud final trap power 3.8mW number of molecules lifetime 40s! temperature few 10nK condensate fraction >90% S. Jochim et al., Science 03

14 6 Li 2 ENS Paris, Salomon et al. molecular BEC gallery 40 K 2 JILA, Jin et al. MIT, Ketterle et al. 6 Li 2 Rice Univ., Hulet et al. 6 Li 2

15 Bose-Einstein Condensation of 6 Li 2 Production of molecules Cooling to condensation Exploring the BEC-BCS cross-over (varying particle interaction) studied cloud size excitation of collective oscillations pairing gap --- pairing of fermions Location of the Feshbach resonance rf spectroscopy

16 The BEC-BCS crossover smooth! reversible! lossless! Scattering length [1000a 0 ] Molecules, strong coupling BEC Superfluidity Crossover Cooper pairs, weak coupling BCS Superfluidity Magnetic field (Gauss) Bartenstein et al., PRL 92, (2004) BEC side Cooper pairs BCS side

17 Bartenstein et al., PRL `04 similar work also by J. Kinast et al. PRL `04 collective modes S. Stringari, Europhys. Lett. 65, 749 (2004): interesting behavior of collective oscillation modes in the crossover!!! our cigar-shaped trap ν r = 755(10) Hz, ν z 22 Hz axial 850G radial 915G 1176G

18 Collective Quadrupolar Excitation ω z =2π 22Hz ω r =2π 755Hz Damping Oscill. Freq. Ω z /ω z Γ z /ω z BEC 2,2 2,0 1,8 1,6 0,6 0,2 Axial Excitation mean-field correction BEC collisionless hydro B (G) Fermi gas Γ r /ω r Ω r /ω r BEC 2,2 2,0 1,8 1,6 1,4 0,8 0,6 0,2 Radial Excitation collisionless sharp sharp transition transition B (G) similar results in J. Thomas group Fermi gas Theory: Stringari `97-`03, Vichi `01, Baranov `01, Heiselberg `04

19 radio-frequency spectroscopy meas. of mol. bind. energy in 40 K Regal et al., Nature 424, 47 (2003) rf spectroscopy of 6 Li: Gupta et al., Science 300, 1723 (2003) ~80MHz rf m I = loss signal Energy (MHz) F = 3/2 F = 1/2 ~200Hz rf frequency m F 6> 3/2 5> 1/2 4> -1/2 3> -3/2 2> -1/2 1> 1/2 Magnetic field (G) high B-field

20 radio-frequency spectroscopy meas. of mol. bind. energy in 40 K Regal et al., Nature 424, 47 (2003) rf spectroscopy of 6 Li: Gupta et al., Science 300, 1723 (2003) ~80MHz atoms molecules rf m I = fractional loss atoms 720 G rf offset (khz) high B-field E b /h binding energy

21 rf spectra in crossover regime evaporation at 764G, then ramp field to 720G no evaporation T >> T c a - atoms only evaporation to T T c evaporation to T < 0.4 T c atom-molecule mixture molecular signal: two-body physics!!!! pure molecular sample (BEC) rf offset (khz) Chin et al., Science 04

22 rf spectra in crossover regime evaporation at 764G, then ramp field into crossover a G: on resonance! T 0.2 T F double-peak structure: atoms and pairs T = 0.0? T F pairs only! rf offset (khz) pair signal shifts with E F!! many-body physics Chin et al., Science 04

23 rf spectra in crossover regime evaporation at 764G, then ramp field into crossover large neg. sc. length a - pairing gap in in strongly interacting Fermi gas rf offset (khz) Chin et al., Science 04

24 temperature dependence of pairing theory Kinnunen Rodriguez Törmä Science Express 21 July 04 fractional loss in 2> (a) (b) (c) (d) RF frequency offset (khz) 0.5 T F 0.4 T F 0.2 T F T < 0.1 T F

25 temperature dependence of pairing (a) fractional loss in 2> (b) (c) (d) RF frequency offset (khz)

26 temperature dependence of pairing (a) fractional loss in 2> (b) (c) T = 0.5T F paired (d) unpaired RF frequency offset (khz)

27 temperature dependence of pairing (a) fractional loss in 2> (b) (c) T = 0.35T F paired (d) unpaired RF frequency offset (khz)

28 temperature dependence of pairing (a) fractional loss in 2> (b) (c) (d) RF frequency offset (khz) T = 0.2T F superfluid paired unpaired

29 temperature dependence of pairing (a) fractional loss in 2> (b) (c) superfluid (d) paired RF frequency offset (khz) T 0.05T F

30 Bose-Einstein Condensation of 6 Li 2 Production of molecules Cooling to condensation Exploring the BEC-BCS cross-over (varying particle interaction) studied cloud size excitation of collective oscillations pairing gap --- pairing of fermions Location of the Feshbach resonance rf spectroscopy

31 Location of the Feshbach resonance molecules Fermi gas ~80MHz binding energy [µk k B ] 0 molecular state continuum Magnetic field [G] rf high B-field m I =

32 bound-free dissociation spectra (4) G (4) G binding energy 277(2) khz 134(2) khz lineshape of dissociation signal: C. Chin and P. Julienne cond-mat/ Free atoms transitions

33 rf spectroscopy on 6Li2

34 bound-bound transition (2) (2) G exp. data NIST theory group: multi-channel quantum scattering model a s = (8) a 0 a t = (18) a 0

35 s-wave scattering lengths Bartenstein et al., cond-mat/

36 conclusion Precise determination of Feshbach position BEC of 6 Li 2 molecules surprisingly simple to make it essentially pure and very long lifetimes excellent starting point BEC-BCS cross-over conversion into Fermi gas reversible cloud size collective excitation pairing gap universality scaling laws smoking gun for superfluidity? interesting effects, e.g. pair breaking