Suppression and enhancement of impurity scattering in a Bose-Einstein condensate.
Impurity atoms propagating at variable velocities through a trapped Bose-Einstein condensate were produced using a stimulated Raman transition. The redistribution of momentum by collisions between the impurity atoms and the stationary condensate was observed in a time-of-flight analysis. The collisional cross section was dramatically reduced when the impurity velocity was reduced below the condensate speed of sound, in agreement with the Landau criterion for superfluidity. For large numbers of impurity atoms, we observed an enhancement of atomic collisions due to bosonic stimulation. This enhancement is analogous to optical super-radiance.
Chikkatur
A P
AP
Department of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA.
Görlitz
A
A
Stamper-Kurn
D M
DM
Inouye
S
S
Gupta
S
S
Ketterle
W
W