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APS » Journals » Phys. Rev. Lett. » Volume 89 » Issue 22
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Phys. Rev. Lett. 89, 220406 (2002) [4 pages]

Ionization Rates in a Bose-Einstein Condensate of Metastable Helium

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O. Sirjean, S. Seidelin, J. Viana Gomes*, D. Boiron, C. I. Westbrook, and A. Aspect
Laboratoire Charles Fabry de l’Institut d’Optique, UMR 8501 du CNRS, F-91403 Orsay Cedex, France

G. V. Shlyapnikov
FOM Institute for Atomic and Molecular Physics, Kruislaan 407, 1098 SJ Amsterdam, The Netherlands
and Russian Research Center Kurchatov Institute, Kurchatov Square, 123182 Moscow, Russia

Received 5 August 2002; published 12 November 2002

We have studied ionizing collisions in a BEC of metastable He. Measurements of the ion production rate combined with measurements of the density and number of atoms for the same sample allow us to estimate both the two- and three-body contributions to this rate. A comparison with the decay of the atom number indicates that ionizing collisions are largely or wholly responsible for the loss. Quantum depletion makes a substantial correction to the three-body rate constant.

© 2002 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.89.220406
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevLett.89.220406
PACS:
34.50.–s, 05.30.–d, 67.65.+z, 82.20.Pm

*Permanent address: Departamento de Fisica, Universidade do Minho, Campus de Gualtar, 4710-057 Braga, Portugal.

 
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