Observation of a Strong Atom-Dimer Attraction in a Mass-Imbalanced Fermi-Fermi Mixture

Year: 2014

Authors: Jag M., Zaccanti M., Cetina M., Lous R.S., Schreck F., Grimm R., Petrov D.S., Levinsen J.

Autors Affiliation: Austrian Acad Sci, Inst Quantenopt & Quanteninformat IQOQI, A-6020 Innsbruck, Austria;
Univ Innsbruck, Inst Expt Phys, A-6020 Innsbruck, Austria;
CNR, Ist Nazl Ott, I-50019 Sesto Fiorentino, Italy;
Univ Paris 11, LPTMS, CNRS, UMR8626, F-91405 Orsay, France
Univ Cambridge, Cavendish Lab, TCM Grp, Cambridge CB3 0HE, England;
Aarhus Univ, Aarhus Inst Adv Studies, DK-8000 Aarhus C, Denmark

Abstract: We investigate a mixture of ultracold fermionic K-40 atoms and weakly bound (LiK)-Li-6-K-40 dimers on the repulsive side of a heteronuclear atomic Feshbach resonance. By radio-frequency spectroscopy we demonstrate that the normally repulsive atom-dimer interaction is turned into a strong attraction. The phenomenon can be understood as a three-body effect in which two heavy K-40 fermions exchange the light Li-6 atom, leading to attraction in odd partial-wave channels (mainly p wave). Our observations show that mass imbalance in a fermionic system can profoundly change the character of interactions as compared to the well-established mass-balanced case.

Journal/Review: PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS

Volume: 112 (7)      Pages from: 075302  to: 075302

More Information: We acknowledge funding by the Austrian Science Fund FWF the SFB FoQuS (F40-P04). M. Z. was supported by the FWF within the Lise Meitner Program (No. M1318), D. S. P. by the Institut Francilien de Recherche sur les Atomes Froids (IFRAF), and J. L. acknowledges support from the Carlsberg Foundation.
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.112.075302

Citations: 50
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