Pauli blocking of stimulated emission in a degenerate Fermi gas

Raphael Jannin*, Yuri van der Werf, Kees Steinebach, Hendrick L. Bethlem, Kjeld S.E. Eikema

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to JournalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

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 3He. 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.

Original languageEnglish
Article number6479
Pages (from-to)1-7
Number of pages7
JournalNature Communications
Volume13
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 29 Oct 2022

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
We would like to thank the late Wim Vassen who initiated this research. We would also like to thank NWO (Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research) for funding through the Program “The mysterious size of the proton” (16MYSTP) and Projectruimte grant 680-91-108. We thank Rob Kortekaas for technical support.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2022, The Author(s).

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