Cold diatomic molecules have been produced using magnetically tunable
Feshbach resonances in optical lattices with two atoms per site [1]. This
experimental technique relies on adiabatic transfer of the lowest
harmonic-oscillator level of an atom pair to a bound molecule via a
magnetic-field sweep. The exotic species of Feshbach molecules produced
have extremely loose bonds and correspondingly large spatial extents as
compared to commonly known bound states of molecular physics. According to
a long standing prediction by Efimov [2], the existence of such long-range
diatomic states consisting of identical Bose atoms implies the emergence of
a series of bound three-body energy levels accumulating at the threshold
for dissociation. Based on numerical calculations [3, 4], we discuss recent
experimental probes of this trimer energy spectrum in ultracold gases
[5] and helium molecular beams [6, 7], as well as its modifications due to
harmonic confinement in atom traps. Taking advantage of Efimov's effect, we
show how such exotic three-body molecules might be produced in an optical
lattice with three atoms per site [8].
[1] G. Thalhammer et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 96, 050402 (2006)
[2] V. Efimov, Phys. Lett. 33B, 563 (1970)
[3] G. Smirne et al., e-print cond-mat/0604183 (Phys. Rev. A, in press)
[4] M.D. Lee, T. Kohler, and P.S. Julienne, e-print cond-mat/0702178
[5] T. Kraemer et al., Nature (London) 440, 315 (2006)
[6] W. Schollkopf and J.P. Toennies, Science 266, 1345 (1994)
[7] R. Bruehl et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 95, 063002 (2005)
[8] M. Stoll and T. Kohler, Phys. Rev. A 72, 022714 (2005)
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