Date/Time
Date(s) - 16/11/2023
1:30 pm - 2:30 pm

Title: Controlling ultracold interactions between individual atoms and ions

Room: ABB 165

Host: Dr. Rodrigo Vargas-Hernandez

Abstract: Understanding and controlling chemical reactions between individual constituents is at the very heart of quantum chemistry. Over the past decades, ultracold atomic and molecular systems have emerge as a versatile platform to investigate these reactions, offering deterministic state preparation as well as trapping and interrogation of the reaction products.

In this talk, I will present a new experimental platform combining laser-coolable 138Ba+ ions and 6Li atoms in a hybrid atom-ion trap. We prepare the barium ions in distinct metastable states, such as the 5D3/2 and 5D3/2 manifolds and let them react with the Li atoms. Using fluorescence imaging, we can track the reaction pathway and can compare these with state-of-the art multi-channel quantum scattering calculations. In a second set of measurements, we prepare both the atoms and the ions in their electronic ground state. Doing so we can cool the system close to the quantum limit, revealing controllable scattering-resonances, such as atom-ion Feshbach resonances. These results pave the way towards studying complex many-body systems and allow the coherent formation of molecular ions.