Abstract
It is demonstrated that elastic collisions of ultracold atoms forming a heteronuclear collision complex can be manipulated by laboratory practicable dc electric fields. The mechanism of electric field control is based on the interaction of the instantaneous dipole moment of the collision pair with external electric fields. It is shown that this interaction is dramatically enhanced in the presence of a -wave shape or Feshbach scattering resonance near the collision threshold, which leads to novel electric-field-induced Feshbach resonances.
- Received 14 August 2005
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.96.123202
©2006 American Physical Society