Inhibiting Three-Body Recombination in Atomic Bose-Einstein Condensates

Abstract

We discuss the possibility of inhibiting three-body recombination in atomic Bose-Einstein condensates via the application of resonant $2\pi$ laser pulses. These pulses result in the periodic change in the phase of the molecular state by $\pi$, which leads to destructive interference between the decay amplitudes following successive pulses. We show that the decay rate can be reduced by several orders of magnitude under realistic conditions.