Macroscopic atom-molecule dark state and its collective excitations in fermionic systems

Phys Rev Lett. 2007 Dec 21;99(25):250404. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.99.250404. Epub 2007 Dec 18.

Abstract

We show that a robust macroscopic atom-molecule dark state can exist in fermionic systems, which represents a coherent superposition between the ground molecular Bose-Einstein condensates and the atomic BCS paired state. We take advantage of the tunability offered by external laser fields, and explore this superposition for demonstrating coherent oscillations between ground molecules and atom pairs. We interpret the oscillation frequencies in terms of the collective excitations of the dark state.