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  • Perspective
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Controlling the interaction of ultracold alkaline-earth atoms

Nature Reviews Physics volume2,pages213–220 (2020)Cite this article

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Abstract

Ultracold alkaline-earth atoms are used in precision measurements and quantum simulation. Because of their unique atomic structure, they could enable the study of problems in quantum many-body systems, such as the simulation of synthetic gauge fields, Kondo and SU(N) physics. But to fully exploit this potential, the capability to tune the interatomic interaction to the strongly interacting regime is needed. Several theoretical proposals and experimental demonstrations have shown that both the spin-independent and spin-exchange interaction can be tuned to resonance in the alkaline-earth atoms. In this Perspective, we review these advances and discuss the opportunities brought by these interaction-control tools for future quantum simulation studies.

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Fig. 1: Schematic illustration of single-atom energy level and interaction potential.
Fig. 2: Theoretical proposal and experimental demonstration of orbital Feshbach resonance in173Yb atoms.
Fig. 3: Theoretical proposal and experimental demonstration of controlling the spin-exchange interaction.

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Acknowledgements

This work is supported by the Ministery of Science and Technology (grant nos. 2018YFA0307601 (R.Z.), 2018YFA0306502 (P.Z.), 2016YFA0301600 (H.Z.)) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant nos. 11804268 (R.Z.), 11434011 (P.Z.), 11674393 (P.Z.) and 11734010 (H.Z.)). P.Z. is also supported by the Research Funds of Renmin University of China (Grant No. 16XNLQ03). H.Z. is also supported by the Beijing Outstanding Young Scholar Program.

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  1. School of Science, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, China

    Ren Zhang

  2. Institute for Advanced Study, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China

    Yanting Cheng & Hui Zhai

  3. Department of Physics, Renmin University of China, Beijing, China

    Peng Zhang

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Zhang, R., Cheng, Y., Zhang, P.et al.Controlling the interaction of ultracold alkaline-earth atoms. Nat Rev Phys2,213–220 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s42254-020-0157-9

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