Dynamics of single neutral impurity atoms immersed in an ultracold gas

Phys Rev Lett. 2012 Dec 7;109(23):235301. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.109.235301. Epub 2012 Dec 4.

Abstract

We report on controlled doping of an ultracold Rb gas with single neutral Cs impurity atoms. Elastic two-body collisions lead to a rapid thermalization of the impurity inside the Rb gas, representing the first realization of an ultracold gas doped with a precisely known number of impurity atoms interacting via s-wave collisions. Inelastic interactions are restricted to a single three-body recombination channel in a highly controlled and pure setting, which allows us to determine the Rb-Rb-Cs three-body loss rate with unprecedented precision. Our results pave the way for a coherently interacting hybrid system of individually controllable impurities in a quantum many-body system.