2021/03/03 by Christian Sanner, Lindsay Sonderhouse, Ross B. Hutson +3
Physics and Astronomy · #Atom (system on chip) #Atomic and Subatomic Physics Research #Atomic physics #Cold Atom Physics and Bose-Einstein Condensates #Condensed matter physics #Degenerate energy levels #Electron #Excited state #Fermi gas #Laser #Pauli exclusion principle #Photon #Physics #Quantum mechanics #Quantum optics and atomic interactions #Radiative transfer #Scattering #Spontaneous emission #cond-mat.quant-gas #physics.atom-ph #quant-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1126/science.abh3483
arxiv created 2021/03/03 · openalex publication_date 2021/11/18 · arxiv updated 2022/02/16 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/06
Transition rates between coupled states in a quantum system depend on the density of available final states. The radiative decay of an excited atomic state has been suppressed by reducing the density of electromagnetic vacuum modes near the atomic transition. Likewise, reducing the density of available momentum modes of the atomic motion when it is embedded inside a Fermi sea will suppress spontaneous emission and photon scattering rates. Here we report the experimental demonstration of suppressed light scattering in a quantum degenerate Fermi gas. We systematically measured the dependence of the suppression factor on the temperature and Fermi energy of a strontium quantum gas and achieved suppression of scattering rates by up to a factor of 2 compared with a thermal gas.