Dimer states in atomic mixtures

Abstract

A mixture of heavy atoms in a Mott state and light spin-1/2 fermionic atoms is studied in an optical lattice. Inelastic scattering processes between both atomic species excite the heavy atoms and renormalize the tunneling rate as well as the interaction of the light atoms. An effective Hamiltonian for the latter is derived that describes tunneling of single fermions, tunneling of fermionic pairs and an exchange of fermionic spins. Low energy states of this Hamiltonian are a Néel state for strong effective repulsion, dimer states for moderate interaction, and a density wave of paired fermions for strong effective attraction.