Optical control of atomic interactions in a quantum gas is a long-sought goal of cold atom research. Previous experiments have been hindered by short lifetimes and parasitic deformation of the trap potential. Here, we develop and implement a generic
scheme for optical control of Feshbach resonance in quantum gases, which yields long condensate lifetimes sufficient to study equilibrium and non-equilibrium physics with negligible parasitic dipole force. We show that fast and local control of interactions leads to intriguing quantum dynamics in new regimes, highlighted by the formation of van der Waals molecules and partial collapse of a Bose condensate.
We present experimental evidence showing that an interacting Bose condensate in a shaken optical lattice develops a roton-maxon excitation spectrum, a feature normally associated with superfluid helium. The roton-maxon feature originates from the dou
ble-well dispersion in the shaken lattice, and can be controlled by both the atomic interaction and the lattice shaking amplitude. We determine the excitation spectrum using Bragg spectroscopy and measure the critical velocity by dragging a weak speckle potential through the condensate - both techniques are based on a digital micromirror device. Our dispersion measurements are in good agreement with a modified-Bogoliubov model.
