Coherent atom-molecule oscillations in a Bose-Fermi mixture
Abstract
We create atom-molecule superpositions in a Bose-Fermi mixture of R87b and K40 atoms. The superpositions are generated by ramping an applied magnetic field near an interspecies Fano-Feshbach resonance to coherently couple atom and molecule states. Rabi- and Ramsey-type experiments show oscillations in the molecule population that persist as long as 150μs and have up to 50% contrast. The frequencies of these oscillations are magnetic-field dependent and consistent with the predicted molecule binding energy. This quantum superposition involves a molecule and a pair of free particles with different statistics (i.e., bosons and fermions) and furthers exploration of atom-molecule coherence in systems without a Bose-Einstein condensate.
- Publication:
-
Physical Review A
- Pub Date:
- September 2009
- DOI:
- 10.1103/PhysRevA.80.030701
- arXiv:
- arXiv:0810.1965
- Bibcode:
- 2009PhRvA..80c0701O
- Keywords:
-
- 34.80.Pa;
- 05.30.Jp;
- 05.30.Fk;
- 34.50.-s;
- Coherence and correlation in electron scattering;
- Boson systems;
- Fermion systems and electron gas;
- Scattering of atoms and molecules;
- Condensed Matter - Other Condensed Matter
- E-Print:
- 5 pages, 4 figures