Jannin Raphael, van der Werf Yuri, Steinebach Kees, Bethlem Hendrick L, Eikema Kjeld S E
LaserLab, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Vrije Universiteit, De Boelelaan 1081, 1081 HV, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Nat Commun. 2022 Oct 29;13(1):6479. doi: 10.1038/s41467-022-34135-6.
The Pauli exclusion principle in quantum mechanics has a profound influence on the structure of matter and on interactions between fermions. Almost 30 years ago it was predicted that the Pauli exclusion principle could lead to a suppression of spontaneous emission, and only recently several experiments confirmed this phenomenon. Here we report that this so-called Pauli blockade not only affects incoherent processes but also, more generally, coherently driven systems. It manifests itself as an intriguing sub-Doppler narrowing of a doubly-forbidden transition profile in an optically trapped Fermi gas of He. By actively pumping atoms out of the excited state, we break the coherence of the excitation and lift the narrowing effect, confirming the influence of Pauli blockade on the transition profile. This insight into the interplay between quantum statistics and coherent driving is a promising development for future applications involving fermionic systems.
量子力学中的泡利不相容原理对物质结构和费米子间的相互作用有着深远影响。近30年前，有人预测泡利不相容原理可能导致自发辐射的抑制，直到最近才有几个实验证实了这一现象。在此我们报告，这种所谓的泡利阻塞不仅影响非相干过程，更普遍地说，还影响相干驱动系统。它表现为在光学捕获的氦费米气体中，一个双重禁戒跃迁谱线出现有趣的亚多普勒变窄。通过主动将原子从激发态泵出，我们打破了激发的相干性并消除了变窄效应，证实了泡利阻塞对跃迁谱线的影响。这种对量子统计与相干驱动之间相互作用的深入理解，对于涉及费米子系统的未来应用而言是一个很有前景的进展。
