We report on the first observation of Bragg scattering of an ultracold $^6$Li Fermi gas. We demonstrate a Ramsey-type matter-wave interferometer based on Bragg diffraction and find robust signatures of persistent matter wave coherences using an echo pulse sequence. Because of the Pauli principle, the diffracted fermions oscillate nearly unperturbed in the trapping potential for long times beyond 2 s. This suggests extremely long coherence times. On these timescales, only the presence of a $^{87}$Rb cloud seems sufficient to induce noticeable perturbations.
We report on the observation of Bragg scattering of an ultracold Fermi gas of 6Li atoms at a dynamic optical potential. The momentum states produced in this way oscillate in the trap for time scales on the order of seconds, nearly unperturbed by collisions, which are absent for ultracold fermions due to the Pauli principle. In contrast, interactions in a mixture with 87Rb atoms lead to rapid damping. The coherence of these states is demonstrated by Ramsey-type matter wave interferometry. The signal is improved using an echo pulse sequence, allowing us to observe coherence times longer than 100 mus. Finally we use Bragg spectroscopy to measure the in-situ momentum distribution of the 6Li cloud. Signatures for the degeneracy of the Fermi gas can be observed directly from the momentum distribution of the atoms inside the trap.
Ramsey interferometers (RIs) using internal electronic or nuclear states find wide applications in science and engineering. We develop a matter wave Ramsey interferometer for motional quantum states exploiting the S- and D-bands of an optical lattice and identify the different de-phasing and de-coherence mechanisms. We implement a band echo technique, employing repeated $pi$-pulses. This suppresses the de-phasing evolution and significantly increase the coherence time of the motional state interferometer by one order of magnitude. We identify thermal fluctuations as the main mechanism for the remaining decay contrast. Our demonstration of an echo-Ramsey interferometer with motional quantum states in an optical lattice has potential application in the study of quantum many body lattice dynamics, and motional qubits manipulation.
We determine the adiabatic phase diagram of a resonantly-coupled system of Fermi atoms and Bose molecules confined in the harmonic trap by using the local density approximation. The adiabatic phase diagram shows the fermionic condensate fraction composed of condensed molecules and Cooper pair atoms. The key idea of our work is conservation of entropy through the adiabatic process, extending the study of Williams et al. [Williams et al., New J. Phys. 6, 123 (2004)] for an ideal gas mixture to include the resonant interaction in a mean-field theory. We also calculate the molecular conversion efficiency as a function of initial temperature. Our work helps to understand recent experiments on the BCS-BEC crossover, in terms of the initial temperature measured before a sweep of the magnetic field.
We report on the realization of a time-domain `Stuckelberg interferometer, which is based on the internal state structure of ultracold Feshbach molecules. Two subsequent passages through a weak avoided crossing between two different orbital angular momentum states in combination with a variable hold time lead to high-contrast population oscillations. This allows for a precise determination of the energy difference between the two molecular states. We demonstrate a high degree of control over the interferometer dynamics. The interferometric scheme provides new possibilities for precision measurements with ultracold molecules.
We consider the generation of longitudinal phonons in an elongated Bose-condensed gas at zero temperature due to parametric resonance as a result of the modulation of the transverse trap frequency. The nonlinear temporal evolution with account of the phonon-phonon interaction leads self-consistently to the formation of the stationary state with the macroscopic occupation of a single phonon quantum state.