Title :
Decay of an ultracold fermionic lithium gas near a Feshbach resonance
Author :
Dieckmann, K. ; Stan, C.A. ; Gupta, S. ; Hadzibabic, Z. ; Schunck, C.H. ; Ketterle, W.
Author_Institution :
Dept. of Phys., MIT, Cambridge, MA, USA
Abstract :
We studied the magnetic field dependence of the inelastic decay of an ultracold, optically trapped fermionic /sup 6/Li gas of different spin compositions. The spin mixture of the two lowest hyperfine states showed two decay resonances at 550 G and 680 G, consistent with the predicted Feshbach resonances for elastic s-wave collisions. The observed lifetimes of several hundred milliseconds are much longer than the expected time for Cooper pair formation and the phase transition to superfluidity in the vicinity of the Feshbach resonance.
Keywords :
fermion systems; hyperfine structure; lithium; radiation pressure; resonant states; superfluidity; Cooper pair formation; Feshbach resonance; Li; elastic s-wave collisions; hyperfine states; inelastic decay; optically trapped fermionic gas; phase transition; spin mixture; superfluidity; ultracold fermionic lithium gas; Atom optics; Charge carrier processes; Clouds; Electron traps; Laboratories; Lithium; Magnetic fields; Magnetic resonance; Optical tuning; Physics;
Conference_Titel :
Quantum Electronics and Laser Science, 2003. QELS. Postconference Digest
Conference_Location :
Baltimore, MD, USA
Print_ISBN :
1-55752-749-0
DOI :
10.1109/QELS.2003.237907
