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Title: Spatial Pauli blocking of spontaneous emission in optical lattices

Journal Article · · Physical Review. A
;  [1];  [1];  [1]
  1. Institute for Theoretical Physics, University of Innsbruck, A-6020 Innsbruck (Austria)

Spontaneous emission by an excited fermionic atom can be suppressed due to the Pauli exclusion principle if the relevant final states after the decay are already occupied by identical atoms in the ground state. Here we discuss a setup where a single atom is prepared in the first excited state on a single site of an optical lattice under conditions of very tight trapping. We investigate these phenomena in the context of two experimental realizations: (1) with alkali-metal atoms, where the decay rate of the excited state is large, and (2) with alkaline-earth-metal-like atoms, where the decay rate from metastable states can be tuned in experiments. This phenomenon has potential applications towards reservoir engineering and dissipative many-body state preparation in an optical lattice.

OSTI ID:
22093381
Journal Information:
Physical Review. A, Vol. 84, Issue 4; Other Information: (c) 2011 American Institute of Physics; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 1050-2947
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English