2009/09/25 by Martin Schlesinger, Schlesinger, Martin, Marcel Mudrich +7
Physics and Astronomy · #Atomic and Molecular Clusters (physics.atm-clus) #Atomic and Subatomic Physics Research #Cold Atom Physics and Bose-Einstein Condensates #FOS: Physical sciences #Quantum, superfluid, helium dynamics #physics.atm-clus
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.0909.4691
4.1 pages, 5 figures
arxiv created 2009/09/25 · openalex publication_date 2009/09/25 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Femtosecond pump-probe spectroscopy has been used to study vibrational dynamics of potassium dimers attached to superfluid helium nanodroplets. Comparing the measured data with theoretical results based on dissipative quantum dynamics we propose that the most important effect of the helium environment is a general damping of the vibrational dynamics as a result of the interaction between dimer and collective degrees of freedom of the helium droplet. The calculations allow us to explain crucial experimental findings that are unobserved in gas-phase measurements. Remarkably, best agreement with experiment is found for a model where we neglect damping once a wave packet moves below a critical velocity. In this way the results provide first direct evidence for the Landau critical velocity in superfluid nanodroplets.