Abstract
We demonstrate that an interferometer based on modulated magnetic field pulses enables precise characterization of the energies and lifetimes of Efimov trimers irrespective of the magnitude and sign of the interactions in thermal gases. Despite thermal effects, interference fringes develop when the dark time between the pulses is varied. This enables the selective excitation of coherent superpositions of trimer, dimer, and free-atom states. The interference patterns possess two distinct damping timescales at short and long dark times that are either equal to or twice as long as the lifetime of Efimov trimers, respectively. Specifically, this behavior at long dark times provides an interpretation of the unusually large damping timescales reported in a recent experiment with thermal gases [Yudkin et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 122, 200402 (2019)]. Apart from that, our results constitute a stepping stone towards a high precision few-body state interferometry for dense quantum gases.
- Received 1 June 2023
- Accepted 3 October 2023
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevResearch.5.043134
Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI.
Published by the American Physical Society