Observation of a broad state-to-state spin-exchange collision near a p-wave Feshbach resonances of $^6$Li atoms

Abstract

The study of state-to-state spin-exchange collisions in the vicinity of $p$-wave Feshbach resonances offer great opportunities to explore many-body interactions and novel quantum phases. Here, we report the observation of a spin-exchange collision near a $p$-wave Feshbach resonance within a mixture of the lowest and third-lowest hyperfine states of $^6$Li atoms. The spin-exchange interaction is observed over a range of ten gausses and produces a pair of atoms in the second-lowest hyperfine states that are captured by a deep optical dipole trap. We apply a coupled-channel method to calculate the scattering properties of this system. We find that the $p$-wave resonance exhibits a low inelastic collision rate and a broad resonance profile, which is due to the modification by the accompanying spin-exchange collisions. These findings open up new possibilities for the creation of long-lived, strongly interacting $p$-wave Fermi gases.