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# X–ray/optical observations of A0535+26/HDE 245770 in quiescence

## 1 INTRODUCTION

The class of High Mass X–ray binaries containing a Be star (Be/HMXRBs) is characterized by transient X–ray outbursts, sometimes reaching Eddington luminosities, interleaved by intervals of low luminosity ($`\text{L}\text{x}10^{35}`$ erg/s). It is possible to distinguish two types of outbursts : Type I outbursts, lasting few days and due to the increase of the accretion rate onto the neutron star as it approaches the periastron along the eccentric ($`e0.5`$) orbit; and Type II outbursts (also called “giant” outbursts), lasting tens of days and thought to be due to sporadic episodes of mass ejection from the Be star. The details of the accretion onto the neutron star are complicated by the poorly known outflow mechanism in Be stars: because of the strong spinning of these stars, close to 70% of their break-up velocity , circumstellar material will accumulate in the equatorial region in the form of a quasi-Keplerian disk. Type I outbursts are thought to originate when the neutron star passes through this slow, dense disk. Quite recently, theoretical works  have shown that tidal interactions can produce truncation of the Be disk at a distance smaller than the periastron separation, suppressing the X–ray activity, and therefore explaining the missing of some Type I outbursts. In this model, long term ($``$ years) cycles arise as stellar material accumulate in the Be disk until tidal interactions sweep it away. The precession/warping of the Be disk accounts for the irregularity of the Type II outburst recurrences.

The study of the quiescent emission in Be/HMXRBs can give important clues on the accretion flow geometry because of the tremendous difference in luminosity in the quiescent and outburst states (more than three orders of magnitude). In particular, we expect that the region responsible for the X–ray emission passes from being optically thick at high luminosity to be optically thin in quiescence, because of the formation of a collision-less shock above the polar caps of the neutron star during outburst states . These variations in X–ray luminosity are responsible of dramatic variations in the pulse shape , because for $`\text{L}\text{x}>10^{36}`$ erg/s X–ray photons escape mainly in a direction perpendicular to the magnetic field lines (fan beam emission pattern), while at lower luminosities photons are emitted mainly in a direction parallel to the magnetic field lines (pencil beam). The comparison of pulse shapes at different luminosities (quiescent vs outburst phase, but also at different orbital phases during quiescence) can give therefore some clues on the emission pattern geometry.

Furthermore, the study of the quiescent state in Be/HMXRBs can give important information on the properties of mass accretion at very low accretion rates, and on the possible onset of a propeller state (see Section 4 below), in which the accretion onto the neutron star is centrifugally inhibited.

In this paper we present the results of a campaign of observations performed by BeppoSAX in order to study the quiescent emission of A0535+26 at different orbital phases, and therefore at different luminosity levels. Simultaneous optical observations of HDE 245770 performed at the 1.5m Cassini Telescope of the Bologna Astronomical Observatory are also presented.

## 2 A0535+26

A0535+26 is the prototype of the Be/HMXRBs. It was discovered during a Type II outburst in 1975 , and since then three other giant outbursts and about a dozen of normal outbursts have been observed . X–ray pulsations at $``$104 s have been detected both during outburst  and in quiescence . Because of the long database of observations it was possible to resolve the binary system , that exhibits an orbital period of 111 days, and an eccentricity of 0.47. The optical counterpart to A0535+26 is HDE 245770 , of spectral type O9.7IIIe–B0Ve . The Be star presents $`UBV`$ photoelectric variability correlated to the X–ray behavior of A0535+26 : in particular the $`V`$ luminosity reached its maximum in 1975 ($`V8.8`$ ), in correspondence of a giant X–ray outburst. The minimum was observed in 1998 ($`V9.1`$ ), when the optical spectrum showed a dramatic change, with the emission lines slowly changing from emission to absorption. This phenomenon is interpreted in terms of Be disk loss .

## 3 OBSERVATIONS AND RESULTS

### 3.1 X–ray observations

A0535+26 was observed three times at different orbital phases by the Narrow Field Instruments (NFIs) aboard the Italian-Dutch satellite BeppoSAX : LECS (0.5–10 keV ), MECS (1.8–10 keV ), and PDS (15–200 keV ). During the whole campaign the HPGSPC  was switched off. The log of the observations, together with the observed NFIs count rates are reported in Table 1. The first two observations, in which the neutron star approaches the periastron, show the same intensity, while the third observation, after the periastron passage, has an almost double count rate in all the NFI energy bands.

#### 3.1.1 Timing analysis

During each BeppoSAX observation the source was quite stable, with time variability on time scales of the order of hundreds of seconds and intensity variability within a factor two (see Fig. 1 with the OBS3 light curve as observed in two MECS energy bands. Gaps in the data are due to passages in the South Atlantic Geomagnetic Anomaly, when the NFIs are switched off). The $`(410)`$/$`(24)`$ keV hardness ratio does not show any variation during the observations.

After correcting photon arrival times to the solar system barycenter, MECS data were searched for periodic signals by performing an epoch folding search and the result is shown in Fig. 2 for OBS3. Data were not corrected for the A0535+26 orbital motion because of the short duration of the observation with respect to the orbital period of 111 days. Our result of $`103.40\pm 0.02`$ s is in agreement with the other quiescent pulse period measurements , confirming that the source is accreting material and channeling it onto the neutron star polar caps even when in quiescence.

In Fig. 3 we show the LECS and MECS pulse profiles as a function of energy for all the three observations (we were not able to extract pulse profiles from the PDS instrument, because of the very low statistics). In the first observation the source displays a double peak profile, typical of the high energy band . In OBS2 the pulse is clearly single peaked, of the same kind observed by RXTE at orbital phase 0.64 , while in the third it is structured, with the presence of a pronounced first peak and a smaller second one. The pulse fraction within the uncertainties, does not depend on energy, as it is shown in Fig. 4 for OBS3. Our result is in agreement with the pulse fraction of 0.53 measured by .

#### 3.1.2 Spectral analysis

The LECS and MECS energy spectra for all the observations were extracted using standard procedures, as outlined in . The combined LECS/MECS spectra are well fit both by an absorbed power law and a thermal bremsstrahlung. Also a blackbody fit is statistically acceptable, but the resulting emitting region is unphysically small (see  on this topic), and no absorption is required. These results are in agreement with , and are listed in Table 2. In Fig. 5 we show the power law fit for the third observation, in which a soft excess below 2 keV is quite evident. This excess can be modeled both with the addition of a black body component ($`kT=1.2`$ keV; $`\chi ^2`$/dof = 213.5/206), or by an over-abundance of Mg in the circumstellar matter ($`14\pm 3`$ times the Solar abundance; $`\chi ^2`$/dof = 232.5/208). Our data do not show the presence of an iron $`K`$-shell line in 6.4–6.9 keV: the 3$`\sigma `$ upper limit on its equivalent width is 150 eV.

For extraction of the PDS net spectra we used the standard procedure  for all the observations but the third where one of the offset fields used for the determination of the background was contaminated by the Crab nebula, and therefore could not be used in the pipeline. In all the observations A0535+26 is clearly detected in the PDS (see Table 1) up to 200 keV. To our knowledge, this is the first detection up to these energies of the quiescent state of A0535+26. Because of the low statistics only a power law model could reasonably be applied for fitting the PDS spectra. The best fitting results are listed in Table 3. These results indicate a hardening of the spectrum for E$`>`$15 keV consistent with $`\alpha =1.11.4`$ observed by HEXE (15–200 keV) on-board MIR during an outburst .

The PDS spectra for OBS2 and OBS3 do not show any deviation from the power law fit, while the OBS1 spectrum presents structured residuals in the range 100–200 keV (see the slightly worse $`\chi _\nu ^2`$ for OBS1 in Table 3). Because of a previous observation by OSSE  of a cyclotron resonance feature (CRF) at 110 keV (observed during a giant outburst), we tried to model the feature with a Gaussian in absorption , as it has been done with other CRFs observed by BeppoSAX. We prefer this kind of model with respect to the Lorenzian model  because the latter has the disadvantage of modifying the continuum (see discussion in ). In Fig. 6 we show the power law plus Gaussian in absorption fit for OBS1, where in the residuals panel we put the CRF normalization to zero in order to show its significance. The CRF best fit parameters are listed in Table 3, in agreement with the OSSE results.

In order to check whether the observed spectral feature was real or due to an instrumental effect, we performed a normalized Crab ratio  on the PDS count rate spectrum of the first observation. This technique has been successfully applied for the detection of CRFs in other X–ray pulsars  and consists of the ratio between the source count rate spectrum and the count rate spectrum of the Crab Nebula. As this second spectrum is known, with great accuracy, to be free of features and to be modeled at first order with a power law in a very broad energy range, this ratio is quite well suited to enhance the presence of features in the spectrum. Furthermore the ratio is in first approximation independent from the calibration of the instrument. In order to enhance the deviations from the continuum we multiply the ratio by a E-2.1 power law, that is the functional form of the Crab spectrum, and we divide by the functional describing the continuum shape of the source (from this the name normalized Crab ratio). The procedure is described in Fig. 7 where we plot the result of each different step used to obtain the final result in the case of A0535+26.

### 3.2 Optical observations

The optical counterpart to A0535+26, the Be star HDE 245770, was monitored at the 1.5m Cassini telescope of the Bologna Astronomical Observatory almost continuously since its discovery in 1975 . During the BeppoSAX campaign several medium-resolution optical spectra, with dispersion ranging from 1.8 to 4 Å/pixel and covering the 4000-8500 Å range, were acquired simultaneously with the X–ray pointings by using the BFOSC instrument. One of these spectra is shown in Fig. 8. In all of them it is clearly seen that Hα and Hβ are in emission, that is the Be star spectrum returned to its normal Be spectrum. This is in agreement with the rebuilding of the Be circumstellar disk around HDE 245770.

At the time of these observations, optical photometry data collected at the nearby Loiano 60 cm telescope shows that the star was at magnitude $`V`$ 9.0 .

## 4 DISCUSSION

Recent RXTE observations  of the quiescent emission from A0535+26 at $`\text{L}\text{x}4\times 10^{33}`$ erg/s (2–10 keV; two orders of magnitude lower than that observed in past quiescent states ) pose serious problems for the standard accretion theory (see, e.g. ). Indeed, at this luminosity level the corotation radius (the distance from the neutron star at which the centrifugal force equals the gravitational pull) is smaller than the magnetospheric radius (the distance at which the magnetic pressure equals the ram pressure), and therefore matter cannot enter the magnetosphere and being accreted because of centrifugal forces (this is the so called propeller state ). But the detection of X–ray pulsations clearly contradicts that the source is in a centrifugal inhibited state. Optical observations before and during the RXTE observations also showed that the $`JHK`$ infrared excess and IR/optical lines emission were missing , a clear indication of a Be disk loss episode in HDE 245770.

In order to accommodate this discrepancy Ikhsanov  proposed that the mechanism of plasma penetration into the magnetosphere is not through standard interchange instabilities, but through magnetic reconnection of the field lines. In this way, both the presence of pulsation and the small polar cap radius derived from the RXTE spectral fits are explained.

Our X–ray observations confirm the low luminosity state of the source, and therefore its centrifugally inhibited state. The LECS observations were able to clearly detect a soft excess that could be explained both in terms of an additional thermal component, as already observed in other accreting X–ray binary pulsars, like Her X–1 , or overabundance of Mg ($`10`$ times the Solar abundance) in the proximity of the source. The almost absence of spectral variability during the orbit seems to point to the absence of any (temporary) accretion disk, as observed during a giant outburst phase from the detection of spin and QPO frequency variations .

The main difference between BeppoSAX and RXTE observations is that the Be disk around HDE 245770 returned in place. We would have expected a higher X–ray luminosity with respect to the disk-less observations, due to the greater amount of circumstellar matter that can be accreted. Therefore the presence of the Be disk seems not to alter the accretion rate onto the neutron star.

The high energy observations indicate a spectral hardening, which is in disagreement with the X–ray spectra observed during the A0535+26 active phase, characterized by a spectral softening above 25 keV . This is further evidence that the kind of accretion in the quiescent and the active phase seems different. In the first BeppoSAX observation there is a marginal (4$`\sigma `$) evidence of a CRF at 110 keV, but not of a 55 keV feature (reported by ). This is a confirmation of the OSSE observation of the CRF detected during the 1994 giant outburst. The same CRF energy observed in two completely different luminosity states constrains the physical conditions in the region in which the CRF originates to not depend on the accretion rate, and this poses serious limits on the actual emission models.

Acknowledgments. We do honor to our late colleague Daniele Dal Fiume, Principal Investigator of the A0535+26 BeppoSAX observations, for his invaluable contribution, among others, in the field of accreting X–ray pulsars. This research was partially funded by Agenzia Spaziale Italiana.


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# MPP-2003-76 The long range properties of the compact U(1) lattice gauge theory with the multi-level algorithm

## 1 Introduction

If the confining gauge theory is related to an effective bosonic string theory, the long range behavior of the potential between static charges separated by distance $`r`$ is expected to have the form:

$$V(r)=\sigma r+\mu +\frac{\gamma }{r}+O(\frac{1}{r^2}).$$
(1)
Here $`\sigma `$ is the string tension and $`\mu `$ denotes a constant. The third term is known as the Lüscher term , where the coefficient, $`\gamma =\pi (d2)/24`$ with space-time dimension $`d`$, is considered to be universal. The effective bosonic string theory also predicts that the width of the field energy distribution of the flux tube diverges logarithmically as $`r\mathrm{}`$ . Recent Monte-Carlo simulations of various LGTs support Eq. (1) with high accuracy: the confinement phase of $`ZZ_2`$ LGT , SU(2) LGT  and SU(3) LGT .

In this report we investigate the long range properties of compact U(1) LGT in the confinement phase. From the Polyakov loop correlation function (PLCF), we extract the potential and force to see whether this theory also supports the presence of the universal correction to the static potential. We then measure the profile of the flux tube induced by the PLCF, and see the behavior of its width as a function of $`r`$. However, due to its strong coupling nature, the Monte Carlo simulation of compact U(1) LTG is numerically difficult, when its long range properties are of interest. To obtain reliable signals, we apply here the multi-level algorithm proposed by Lüscher and Weisz originally for SU(3) LGT , which helps to reduce statistical errors exponentially.

## 2 Numerical procedures

We adopt the terminology of Ref. . To measure the PLCF, $`P^{}P(R)`$, where $`R=r/a`$, we take second-level averages of the two-link correlators $`𝕋(m;R;i)=U_4^{}(m)U_4(m+R\widehat{i})`$ with $`m=(m_s,m_t)`$ as

$$𝕋^{(2)}(m_s,\overline{m}_t;R;i)=[𝕋(m;R;i)𝕋(m+\widehat{4};R;i)],$$
(2)
which is achieved by updating link variables except for the spatial links at $`\overline{m}_t=1,3,\mathrm{},N_t1`$. $`N_t`$ is the timelike extent of the lattice volume. $`i=1,2,3`$ denote directions between the two charges. We call this procedure the internal update. We repeat the internal update until reasonably stable values for $`𝕋^{(2)}`$ are obtained. Then the PLCF at a spatial site $`m_s`$ is constructed as

$`P^{}P(m_s;R;i)=\mathrm{Re}𝕋^{(2)}(m_s,1;R;i)`$
$`\times 𝕋^{(2)}(m_s,3;R;i)\mathrm{}𝕋^{(2)}(m_s,N_t1;R;i).`$ (3)
The average with respect to $`m_s`$ and $`i`$ provides $`[P^{}P(R)]_{i_c}`$. The desired expectation value is the average of $`[P^{}P(R)]_{i_c}`$ for $`i_c=1,2,\mathrm{},N_c`$. In the actual measurements, we have also applied the multi-hit technique to the timelike link variables for $`R2`$ before constructing $`𝕋`$. The static potential and the corresponding force are taken as (neglecting terms of $`O(e^{\mathrm{\Delta }EN_t})`$)

$`aV(R)={\displaystyle \frac{1}{N_t}}\mathrm{ln}P^{}P(R),`$ (4)
$`a^2F(\overline{R})=aV(R)aV(R1),`$ (5)
where $`\overline{R}=R1/2+O(a)`$.

In order to measure the flux-tube profile, one needs to compute a correlation function of the type

$`𝒪(n)_j={\displaystyle \frac{P^{}P𝒪(n)_0}{P^{}P_0}}𝒪_0,`$ (6)
where $`𝒪`$ is a local operator, $`\mathrm{}_j`$ denotes an average in the vacuum with the PLCF, and $`\mathrm{}_0`$ an average in the vacuum without such a source. To measure $`P^{}P𝒪_0`$ on the mid-plane between two static charges, we parameterize the position of the local operator $`n`$ as $`n=(n_i=m_i+R/2,n_j=m_j+x,n_k=m_k+y,n_t=m_t)`$ and take the average of the two-link-local-operator correlator

$`𝕋𝕆^{(2)}(m_s,\overline{m}_t;n;R;i)=`$
$`[𝕋(m;R;i)𝕆(m+\widehat{4};n;R;i)].`$ (7)
with $`𝕆(m;n;R;i)=U_4^{}(m)U_4(m+R\widehat{i})𝒪(n)`$ in addition to $`𝕋^{(2)}`$. Combining $`𝕋𝕆^{(2)}`$ and $`𝕋^{(2)}`$, we obtain $`P^{}P𝒪_0`$.

As local operators, we have used $`𝒪_E(n)=i\overline{\theta }_{\mu \nu }(n)`$ for the electric field, and $`𝒪_k(n)=2\pi ik_\mu (n)`$ for the monopole current as defined in Ref. . Note that the second term of Eq. (6) vanishes for these operators since $`𝒪_E`$ and $`𝒪_k`$ are parity odd.

## 3 Numerical results

We generate a sequence of independent gauge field configurations, by using the Wilson gauge action of compact U(1) LGT on a $`16^4`$ lattice at $`\beta =`$ 0.98, 0.99, 1.00, 1.005 and 1.01. For the first three $`\beta `$ values, the configuration has been generated after 500 thermalization sweeps, and they were separated by 100 sweeps, where one Monte Carlo update has been achieved by 1HB/3OR. For $`\beta =`$ 1.005 and 1.01 the thermalization sweeps have been taken 1000 and 3000, respectively, with 1HB/5OR Monte Carlo update.

For the static potential and force, we have used $`N_c=`$ 1050, 1250, 2050, 2400 and 3200 configurations, respectively. The internal updates have been taken as $`N_{\mathrm{iupd}}=`$10000, 8000, 5000, 3000 and 1000. These numbers are optimized to measure the PLCF up to $`R`$ = 6 with $`<10`$ % errors, where the PLCF themselves take values from $`10^3`$ to $`10^{17}`$. From the force, we have introduced a scale based on Sommer’s relation $`r_0^2F(r_0)=1.65`$. Lattice spacings in units of $`r_0`$ are found to be $`a/r_0=`$ 0.470, 0.422, 0.353, 0.305 and 0.217, respectively.

In Figs. 2 and 2, we show the static potential and force from all $`\beta `$ values. They show good scaling behaviors. We also plot the theoretical prediction for the force based on Eq. (1) in Fig. 2. We find that the long distance behavior is well-described by the function, $`F=dV/dr=\sigma \gamma /r^2`$ with $`\sigma r_0^2=1.65\gamma =1.39`$, which contains no fitting parameter. This supports the universality of $`\gamma /r`$ correction to the static potential. Surprisingly, another feature in common with non-Abelian gauge theories is that this function also fits the data down to relatively short distance to $`r/r_00.3`$. For this, there is as yet no explanation.

We have measured flux-tube profiles with lengths $`R=`$ 3 to 6 at $`\beta =`$ 0.99 to 1.01 and $`R=3`$ to 5 at $`\beta =0.98`$. We have applied $`N_{\mathrm{iupd}}=2008000`$ depending on $`R`$ and $`\beta `$. The number of configurations are $`N_c=300`$ for all $`\beta `$ values. As an example, we show the profiles of the electric field and monopole current for $`R=5`$ at $`\beta =0.98`$ in Fig. 3, which is the longest flux tube in these measurements: $`r/r_0=2.35`$. Here we have taken the cylindrical average: $`\rho =\sqrt{x^2+y^2}`$ and $`\phi =\mathrm{tan}^1(y/x)`$. As shown in this figure, we have obtained very clean signals, however, rotational invariance for the monopole current profile seems not good due to the relatively large lattice spacing at $`\beta =0.98`$. For larger $`\beta `$, we obtained smoother curves.

There are several definitions of the width of the flux tube. Here, we have investigated this in terms of the peak radius of the monopole current profile, $`\rho _{\mathrm{eff}}`$. In order to find $`\rho _{\mathrm{eff}}`$ we have interpolated the on-axis data with a smooth curve. The result as a function of $`r/r_0`$ is shown in Fig. 4, where we have picked only the data with $`R=5`$ for all $`\beta `$ values; $`\rho _{\mathrm{eff}}`$ seems to grow as increasing $`r`$. However, we make no statement on the behavior whether the width diverges as $`r\mathrm{}`$. Also, since the rotational invariance is not good for small $`\beta `$ values, we have to check the validity of the smooth interpolation carefully. Further detailed analyses are in progress .

### Acknowledgement

We are grateful to M. Lüscher and P. Weisz for useful discussions. The calculations were done on the SX-5 at the RCNP, Osaka University, Japan.


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# Single-quasiparticle stability and quasiparticle-pair decay in YBa2Cu3O6.5 (Ortho II)

## I Introduction

A special property of the cuprate superconductors is that the energy required for the creation of a quasiparticle depends on the direction of its momentum shen . The creation energy is zero for momenta in the ’nodal’ direction, oriented at 45 relative to the Cu-O bond. The most energetically expensive quasiparticles are the ’antinodal’ ones, whose momenta are nearly parallel to the bond. Because they feel the pairing interaction most strongly, their properties may hold the key to high-$`T_c`$ superconductivity. Unfortunately, their tendency to form strong pairs makes them difficult to study. In thermal equilibrium the population of quasiparticles is overwhelmingly dominated by the low energy nodal ones. As a result, transport measurements performed in equilibrium, such as microwave hosseini  and thermal ong  conductivity, are insensitive to antinodal quasiparticles.

A potentially powerful approach to studying the interactions of antinodal quasiparticles at low temperature is to create a nonthermal population by external excitation. By probing the relaxation of the nonthermal population to the ground state, one may hope to learn about interactions between quasiparticles that would not normally be present at low temperature. Time-resolved optical techniques are ideally suited to creating a nonequilibrium density of quasiparticles and measuring their subsequent relaxation. These techniques are based on mode-locked lasers that produce pulses of 10-100 fs duration with a wide range of energy per pulse, center wavelength, and repetition rate. Such measurements are performed in a ’pump-probe’ mode in which a beam of pulses is split in two. The pump pulse creates the nonequilibrium state while the probe pulse senses the change in the optical response of the medium due to the nonequilibrium population. The time delay between the two pulses is controlled continuously and accurately by varying the optical path length difference between the two beams. Measuring the transmission or reflection of the probe as a function of time delay gives information about the return to equilibrium after the pulsed excitation.

There have been several time-resolved optical measurements performed on the YBa2Cu3O7-x (YBCO) system of cuprate superconductors. The earliest work han ; eesley ; chwalek ; brorson  reported the change in the reflectivity ($`\mathrm{\Delta }R`$) of a 1.5 eV probe due to photoexcitation at the same energy. The measurements showed that in the normal state $`\mathrm{\Delta }R`$ is small and decays very rapidly. Upon cooling below $`T_c`$, $`\mathrm{\Delta }R`$ increases rapidly, and its decay rate decreases. These results suggested that carrier thermalization and/or recombination proceed rapidly in the normal state, but are strongly impeded by the opening of the superconducting gap.

Subsequent measurements provided a more detailed picture of the magnitude and decay rate of $`\mathrm{\Delta }R`$ as a function of carrier concentration demsar . In underdoped samples $`\mathrm{\Delta }R`$ is readily detectable in the normal state. The decay rate slows with cooling, suggesting a correlation between the relaxation rate of the nonequilibrium state and the appearance of the pseudogap. It was reported that the relaxation time is insensitive to $`T`$ in the superconducting state, with the exception of a peak near $`T_c`$. The results were interpreted in terms of an excited state in which quasiparticles and phonons rapidly reach quasiequilibrium. The decay rate was conjectured to reflect the thermalization of nonequilibrium phonons.

Recently, measurements of $`\mathrm{\Delta }R`$ at 1.5 eV were reported on an untwinned single crystal of YBa2Cu3O6.5 Ortho II segre . (The designation Ortho II refers to the macroscopic ordering of the atomic layer containing the Cu-O chains. In the Ortho II phase the chains alternate between fully occupied, and entirely unoccupied, by O atoms). In these measurements the range of pump intensity was extended to nearly two orders of magnitude smaller than used in earlier measurements. It was shown that while the $`T`$ dependence of the decay rate is weak when the intensity, $`I`$, is large, it becomes extremely strong as $`I`$ is reduced. In fact, the decay rate appeared to vanish as $`T`$ and $`I`$ both tend to zero. It was suggested that the strong $`I`$ dependence of the decay rate is not consistent with a picture in which the quasiparticles and phonons reach quasiequilibrium and an alternate mechanism involving the pairwise scattering of quasiparticles was suggested.

In this paper, we present further measurements and analysis of time-resolved photoinduced reflectivity in YBCO Ortho II. The experimental apparatus and sample characterization are described in Section II. In Section III we introduce the Rothwarf-Taylor (RT) equations, which provide a phenomenological framework for interpreting nonequilibrium dynamics in superconductors. Section IV presents measurements of the decay of the photoinduced reflectivity as a function of time, temperature, and pump beam intensity. The essential experimental finding, as in Ref. segre , is that the characteristic decay time diverges as both $`T`$ and $`I`$ approach zero. However, we present several results beyond those already reported. We present and analyze the time dependence of the transient reflectivity, showing that it is described well by the pairwise scattering of quasiparticles. Second, we report improved measurements of the asymptotic value of the decay rate in the limit that $`I`$ goes to zero. According to the RT equations, the low-intensity limit is a direct measure of $`\gamma _{th}`$, the quasiparticle recombination rate in thermal equilibrium. Through improvements in sensitivity we were able to measure $`\gamma _{th}`$ with more than one order of magnitude greater precision than previously. Finally, in Section V we present analysis and interpretation of the experimental results. We argue that the quasparticles that give rise to $`\mathrm{\Delta }R`$ are antinodal in character and interpret the decay rate as a measure of the strength of antinodal quasiparticle interactions.

## II Experimental methods

Pump and probe measurements were performed on a mechanically detwinned single crystal of YBa2Cu3O6.5 with $`T_c`$=45 K. The sample was grown in a BaZrO3 crucible, which yields material with purity at the 0.99995 level. The high purity allows allows the development of very long correlation lengths ($`\xi _a=148\AA `$, $`\xi _b=430\AA `$, $`\xi _c=58\AA `$) of Ortho II order liang , in which the the charge reservoir layer consists of alternating filled and empty copper oxygen chains. Together with YBa2Cu4O8, it is one of two underdoped cuprate superconductors in which doping does not introduce disorder. The relative lack of disorder is reflected in the low temperature transport properties, which indicate quasiparticle scattering times in excess of 30 ps turner .

In our experiments, the pump and probe beams were produced by a mode-locked Ti:Sapphire laser. The pulses have duration 100 fs, repetition rate 12 ns, and center wavelength 800 nm. Both pump and probe beams were focused onto the sample with a 20 cm focal length lens, yielding a spot size of 75 $`\mu `$m diameter. The reflected probe beam was focused onto a Si photodiode detector.

A double modulation scheme was used to optimize sensitivity to small changes in the power of the reflected probe beam. In order to minimize the noise from the Si photodiode detector, a photoelastic modulator was used to modulate the amplitude of the pump beam at 100 KHz. In addition, a galvanometer-mounted mirror varied the path-length difference between pump and probe beams at a frequency of 40 Hz. This yields a rapid scan of the time delay between pump and probe, which helps to suppress noise due to 1/f fluctuations of the probe beam power. In order to demodulate and extract $`\mathrm{\Delta }R`$ as a function of time delay, the output of the Si photodiode was sent to a lock-in amplifier for phase-sensitive detection of the 100 KHz component. The output of the lock-in was then sent to a digital oscilloscope whose time base was triggered synchronously to the oscillating mirror. With the oscilloscope in averaging mode, a minimum detectable $`\mathrm{\Delta }R/R`$ of $`10^7`$ could be achieved after approximately 10 minutes of accumulation time.

In this study, we focused on the decay rate of $`\mathrm{\Delta }R`$ immediately following the pulsed excitation, or $`\gamma (0)`$. For most of the measurements, we determined $`\gamma (0)`$ by fitting $`\mathrm{\Delta }R(t)`$ at small time delays by a decaying exponential. However, special considerations arose in measurements of $`\gamma (0)`$ at very low pump power. As described in succeeding sections, $`\gamma (0)`$ decreases as the pump intensity is lowered. At low temperatures, the decay rate decreases to the extent that the change in $`\mathrm{\Delta }R`$ over the 25 ps time delay range produced by the oscillating mirror is extremely small. To measure $`\gamma (0)`$ in this regime, we switched to a detection scheme that probes directly the derivative of $`\mathrm{\Delta }R`$ with respect to time delay. The signal from the first lock-in was sent to a second lock-in, rather than the digital oscilloscope, for phase-sensitive detection at the frequency of the oscillating mirror. When the oscillating time delay is less than the decay time of $`\mathrm{\Delta }R`$, the output of the second lock-in is proportional to the derivative $`d\mathrm{\Delta }R/dt`$. In this mode of data acquisition we vary the pump-probe delay by a conventional system of a retroreflector mounted on a translation stage.

When measured at low pump intensity, $`\gamma (0)`$ is remarkably sensitive to $`T`$, decreasing about an order of magnitude between 15 and 10 K, for example. The extreme sensitivity to temperature suggests that laser heating can introduce significant error in determining the $`T`$-dependence of $`\gamma (0)`$. (By laser heating we refer to the steady-state increase in sample temperature due to the time-averaged laser power). For the experiments described above, the pump intensity was lowered below the intensity of the probe. In this regime, the probe beam is responsible for heating the photoexcited region. At low temperature we can readily observe that $`\gamma (0)`$ varies as the probe intensity, and consequently the sample temperature, is varied. The obvious remedy of reducing the probe power has the drawback that the $`\mathrm{\Delta }R`$ signal soon disappears below the detector noise level.

Empirically, we found that the optimal compromise between signal-to-noise ratio and laser heating is obtained at a probe power of approximately 1.2 mW. At this power level $`\gamma (0)`$ can be measured, yet the induced temperature change is significantly less than the bath temperature. Determining the dependence of $`\gamma (0)`$ on $`T`$ at this power level requires that we know the temperature of the photoexcited region of the sample. Unfortunately it is extremely difficult to measure, with the required accuracy, the temperature of the sample directly under the focal spot.

Because of this difficulty, we have performed a numerical simulation of the thermal diffusion equation to estimate the laser-induced temperature change. We input to this simulation a realistic model for the thermal properties of the sample and its coupling to the bath. In the experiment, the sample is attached to a sapphire plate using thermal grease. After mounting, the thickness of the grease layer is determined using an optical microscope. The input parameters to the numerical simulation are the thicknesses of the sample and grease layer, as well as their temperature dependent thermal conductivities hagen ; kreitman . Figure 1 shows the temperature of the photoexcited region as a function of the bath temperature, as determined by finite-element analysis of the diffusion equation. In the simulation, the laser power is 1.2 mW, focused to a spot of diameter 75 $`\mu `$m. The thickness of the sample and thermal grease were 20 $`\mu `$m and 5 $`\mu `$m, respectively. In the subsequent analysis of the low-pump intensity data, we used the calculated temperature, rather than the temperature of the thermal bath.

## III Background: Rothwarf-Taylor equations and the phonon-bottleneck

In this section we introduce the Rothwarf-Taylor rt  equations, which provide a successful phenomenological framework for understanding nonequilibrium dynamics in superconductors gray . The RT equations are a pair of rate equations that describe a system of superconducting quasiparticles coupled to phonons. In the RT phenomenology the excited state is characterized by number densities rather than nonequilibrium energy distribution functions. This drastic simplification is justified in s-wave superconductors because quasiparticles rapidly thermalize to a narrow range of energy just above the gap. In d-wave superconductors the time evolution of the quasiparticle distribution function may be more complicated. In spite of this, we have found that the RT equations provide an excellent description of the dynamics of YBCO Ortho II after pulsed photoexcitation. In the final section we comment on the underlying reasons for the applicability of the RT approach.

In this work we write the RT equations in the following form,

$$\dot{n}=I_{qp}+2N\gamma _{pc}\beta n^2$$
(1)
$$\dot{N}=I_{ph}+\beta n^2/2\gamma _{pc}N(NN_{eq})\gamma _{esc}$$
(2)
where $`n`$, and $`N`$, are the number densities of gap energy quasiparticles and phonons, respectively. The right hand side of Eq. 1 expresses the difference between the rates of quasiparticle creation and annihilation. $`I_{qp}`$ is the external generation rate and 2$`N\gamma _{pc}`$ is the rate of pair creation via annihilation of gap energy phonons. The quasiparticle annihilation rate $`\beta n^2`$ varies quadratically with density because recombination is a two-particle scattering event. In Eq. 2 the time rate of change of the phonon density is given by the external phonon creation rate and the same recombination and pair creation terms (with opposite signs) as in Eq. 1. The parameter $`\gamma _{esc}`$, which appears in the last term in Eq. 2, is the rate at which a gap energy phonon decays into below-gap energy phonons that cannot regenerate a quasiparticle pair. Typically, $`\gamma _{esc}\gamma _{pc}`$, in which case a gap energy phonon is far more likely to regenerate a quasiparticle pair than to decay into the bath. Although the escape process is relatively slow, it is essential for the ultimate return of the coupled system to equilibrium.

In the present paper, we are concerned with the evolution of the system following pulsed excitation, in which case there are two characteristic time regimes. For delay times $`t`$ such that $`t\gamma _{pc}^1`$, the quasiparticles and phonons have not yet reached quasiequilibrium. In this regime the quasiparticle population decays at the density dependent rate $`\beta n`$. For $`t\gamma _{pc}^1`$ the exchange of energy between the phonons and quasiparticles has brought the two populations into quasiequilibrium. In this regime $`N`$ and $`n`$ both decay at the much slower rate $`\gamma _{esc}`$. The decay of the quasiparticle population has become slow and independent of density, despite the fact that the rate of quasiparticle scattering may be rapid and density dependent. The limit on the decay of the nonequilibrium quasiparticle density imposed by the quasiequilibrium with the phonons is termed the phonon bottleneck.

## IV Experimental results

### IV.1 Intensity dependence at low temperature

The decay rate of the photoinduced reflectivity in YBCO Ortho II depends strongly on both the temperature, $`T`$, and the pump intensity, $`I`$. Fig. 1 illustrates the decrease of the decay rate with decreasing $`I`$ at a fixed $`T`$=9 K. Each curve, measured using a different $`I`$ in the range from 2 to 25 mW, has been normalized to the same value at $`t=0`$ to illustrate the variation in decay rate. Although the decay rate continues to decrease as $`I`$ is lowered below 2 mW, these curves are not shown because their noise fluctuations obscure the higher intensity curves. We discuss the decay rate at very low pump intensity in more detail in Section IV.C.

The variation in decay rate with excitation density observed in YBCO Ortho II is highly unusual. Analogous experiments on s-wave superconductors have consistently found that the decay rate of the nonequilibrium state is independent of the quasiparticle density gray . The lack of density dependence is understood as a manifestation of the phonon bottleneck effect. As discussed in the previous section, the bottleneck sets in when $`t`$ reaches approximately $`\gamma _{pc}^1`$. If there is no significant recombination on this time scale, that is if $`\beta n\gamma _{pc}`$, then only density-independent bottleneck dynamics can be seen.

Within this picture, the absence of a bottleneck in YBCO Ortho II indicates that the hierarchy of pair creation and recombination rates is reversed as compared with conventional superconductors. (In Section V.D we discuss why the hierarchy of rates may be reversed in cuprate superconductors). If $`\beta n\gamma _{pc}`$, then in the time window $`t<\gamma _{pc}^1`$ quasiparticle recombination proceeds in the absence of the reverse process of pair creation. Measuring the decay of the quasiparticle density in this time window provides direct information about the rate of quasiparticle-quasiparticle scattering.

To test whether our measurements of YBCO Ortho II are in a pre-bottleneck regime, we have analyzed the time-dependence of the decay of $`\mathrm{\Delta }R`$. Fig. 3 is a double log plot of $`\mathrm{\Delta }R`$ as a function of time delay, for several pump intensities. At the highest excitation density $`\mathrm{\Delta }R`$ decays as a power law for $`t>3`$ ps. With decreasing excitation density the onset of power law decay shifts to longer times. At the lowest intensity the crossover time is greater than the maximum time delay in this set of measurements, which is $``$25 ps.

We compare these curves with the predictions of the RT equations in the time regime before the onset of the phonon bottleneck. This decoupled regime corresponds to the $`\gamma _{pc}0`$ limit. In this limit the form of the RT equations is clarified if the total quasiparticle population is written as $`n_{ph}+n_{th}`$, where $`n_{ph}`$ and $`n_{th}`$ are the photoinduced and thermal equilibrium quasiparticle density, respectively. Similarly, we define $`N_{ph}`$ and $`N_{th}`$ as the photoinduced and thermal equilibrium phonon populations. Detailed balance relates the thermal densities of phonons and quasiparticles such that,

$$2N_{th}\gamma _{pc}=\beta n_{th}^2.$$
(3)
Substituting the above relation into Eq. 1, and setting $`\gamma _{pc}=0`$, yields a rate equation for $`n_{ph}`$ that is independent of the phonon population,

$$\dot{n}_{ph}=I_{qp}\beta n_{ph}^22\beta n_{th}n_{ph}.$$
(4)
Eq. 4 is equivalent to the rate equation applicable to nonequilibrium electrons and holes in semiconductors, and has been studied extensively in connection with photoconductivity bube . If $`n_{th}`$ vanishes as $`T`$ approaches zero, then the rate equation approaches $`\dot{n}_{ph}=I_{ph}\beta n_{ph}^2`$. At low $`T`$ the quasiparticles obey simple second order, or bimolecular, reaction kinetics. Integration yields the decay after pulsed excitation,

$$n_{ph}(t)=\frac{n_{ph}(0)}{[1+\beta n_{ph}(0)t]}.$$
(5)
Eq. 5 predicts that the excited population approaches $`1/\beta t`$ for $`t1/\beta n_{ph}(0)`$, regardless of the initial quasiparticle density. However, as is clear from Fig. 3, the measured decay curves do not obey this prediction. At long times the decay is closer to $`t^{0.8}`$ than $`t^1`$, and curves for different intensities do not merge to a single curve at long times.

The discrepancies described above can be traced to a complication omitted from the preceding analysis. Because the intensity of the pump beam decreases exponentially with increasing depth below the sample surface, $`z`$, the local quasiparticle density, $`n_{ph}(z,t)`$, is spatially nonuniform. The initial local density $`n_{ph}(z,0)`$, equals $`n_{ph}(0,0)e^{\alpha z}`$, where $`\alpha `$ is the absorption coefficient at the pump wavelength. Assuming negligible diffusion of excitations in the $`z`$ direction, the local excitation density decays as,

$$n_{ph}(z,t)=\frac{n_{ph}(z,0)}{[1+\beta n_{ph}(z,0)t]}.$$
(6)
The probe beam, whose change in reflectivity measures the excited quasiparticle density, also decays exponentially in the sample. Therefore the measured reflectivity change is related to an exponentially weighted average of the nonequilibrium quasiparticle density fishman ,

$$𝒩(t)\alpha ^1_0^{\mathrm{}}𝑑ze^{\alpha z}n_{ph}(z,0)/[1+\beta n_{ph}(z,0)t].$$
(7)
Assuming that the change in reflectivity is proportional to $`𝒩`$ finally yields,

$$\mathrm{\Delta }R(t)=\frac{2\mathrm{\Delta }R(0)}{\gamma _0t}[1\frac{ln(1+\gamma _0t)}{\gamma _0t}],$$
(8)
where $`\gamma _0\beta n_{ph}(0,0)`$.

The solid lines in Fig. 3 indicate the best fit of Eq. 8 to the experimental data. The fit is obtained by varying $`\mathrm{\Delta }R(0)`$ and $`\gamma _0`$ for each curve. There is excellent agreement between the data and the prediction of the bimolecular rate equation when the exponential variation of the pump and probe intensities is taken into account. The agreement suggests that for $`t<25`$ ps, the phonon bottleneck is not yet established and the decay rate of $`\mathrm{\Delta }R`$ is a direct measure of the quasiparticle-quasiparticle scattering rate.

From the fitting procedure we determine $`\mathrm{\Delta }R(0)`$ and $`\gamma _0`$ for each curve. In Fig. 4 we plot $`\gamma _0`$ as a function of $`\mathrm{\Delta }R(0)/R`$. It is evident that the characteristic decay rate increases linearly with the magnitude of the initial reflectivity change. The linear relationship indicates that the entire family of decay curves can be described by a single bimolecular coefficient $`\beta `$.

### IV.2 Temperature dependence

In the previous section we showed that the decay of $`\mathrm{\Delta }R`$ at low temperature can be described by the bimolecular rate equation with a single value of the scattering coefficient $`\beta `$. In this section we analyze the effect of raising the temperature on the rate of decay of $`\mathrm{\Delta }R`$. Fig. 5 shows a set of normalized decay curves of $`\mathrm{\Delta }R`$, measured in the temperature range from 5-70 K, induced by a pump power of 2.5 mW. The set of curves illustrates clearly that the decay rate at fixed $`I`$ increases rapidly with increasing $`T`$.

To analyze the $`T`$ dependence, we again consider the RT equation in the decoupled regime (Eq. 4). At nonzero $`T`$ we must include the last term on the right-hand side, which was neglected previously. Physically, this term describes the rate of scattering of a photoinjected quasiparticle by a thermal equilibrium one.

We have found that the most direct way to compare the data with Eq. 4 is to focus on the initial decay rate, $`\gamma (0)`$, of the experimentally measured transients. Here $`\gamma (0)`$ is defined as the limit of the instantaneous decay rate $`\gamma (t)\dot{n}_{ph}/n_{ph}`$ as $`t`$ approaches zero. According to Eq. 4, $`\gamma (0)=\beta \left[n_{ph}(0)+2n_{th}\right]`$. Assuming that the initial reflectivity change is proportional to $`n_{ph}(0)`$, a plot of $`\gamma (0)`$ vs. $`\mathrm{\Delta }R(0)`$ should yield a straight line with slope proportional to $`\beta `$ and intercept $`2\beta n_{th}`$.

Fig. 6 shows $`\gamma (0)`$ plotted as a function of $`\mathrm{\Delta }R(0)/R`$ for several temperatures in the superconducting state. The data at the lowest temperature are essentially equivalent to the results presented earlier. In Fig. 4 the decay rate was determined by fitting the entire time dependence, while in Fig. 6 the decay rate is determined from the initial slope. The reason the decay rates in the two figures differ by a factor of two can be understood from Eq. 8. Taking the derivative of this formula with respect to time shows that $`\gamma (0)=\gamma _0/2`$.

With increasing $`T`$ the $`\gamma (0)`$ vs. $`\mathrm{\Delta }R(0)`$ plots shift vertically, with little change in slope. The fact that the slope is nearly constant implies that $`\beta `$ depends weakly, if at all, on the temperature. The increase of the intercept with $`T`$ implies a rapidly increasing density of thermal equilibrium excitations. In the next section we examine the temperature dependence of the intercepts, as determined from measurements performed at very low pump and probe intensities.

Fig. 7 presents a different perspective of the decay rate as a function of temperature and intensity: $`\gamma (0)`$ as a function of $`T`$ for three values of $`I`$. In the normal state and just below $`T_c`$ the different data sets lie on the same curve, indicating that $`\gamma (0)`$ is independent of $`I`$. As the temperature is lowered below $`T_c`$ the decay rates measured with different pump intensities begin to diverge. As the temperature tends to zero, the decay rate crosses over to a temperature independent regime, with the crossover temperature higher when the rates are measured at greater pump intensity. A consistent explanation for the $`T`$ and $`I`$ dependence of $`\gamma (0)`$ can be found in the picture of pairwise scattering involving both thermal equilibrium and photoinduced quasiparticles. The lack of intensity dependence above $`T_c`$ suggests that in this regime the thermal density of quasiparticles is far larger than the photoinduced density. The strong temperature dependence above $`T_c`$ suggests that $`n_{th}`$ decreases with decreasing temperature in the normal state, possibly due to the opening of the pseudogap. The onset of intensity dependence at $`T_c`$ may indicate that $`n_{th}`$ has become comparable to $`n_{ph}`$. Alternatively, the sudden change in decay kinetics may be related to the onset of the coherence in the antinodal quasiparticle self-energy. Finally, the decay rate measured at fixed pump intensity crosses over to $`T`$-independence when $`n_{th}`$ becomes much smaller than $`n_{ph}(T)`$. The overall behavior of $`\gamma (0)`$ suggests that the decay rate vanishes in the limit that both $`I`$ and $`T`$ go to zero.

### IV.3 Low intensity regime

In this section we focus on measurements of $`\gamma (0)`$ performed at the lowest laser intensities that are accessible experimentally. The motivation for studying the low-intensity regime is to measure, via a nonequilibrium experiment, the recombination lifetime of quasiparticles in equilibrium. In order to probe equilibrium properties, the density perturbation introduced by the laser must be small, such that $`n_{ph}n_{th}`$. According to Eq. 4, $`\gamma (0)`$ approaches $`2\beta n_{th}`$ in this limit, which is exactly twice the thermal equilibrium recombination rate, $`\gamma _{th}`$.

Measuring $`\gamma _{th}`$ accurately becomes increasingly difficult at low temperature because of the requirement that $`n_{ph}n_{th}`$. As $`n_{th}`$ decreases rapidly with decreasing $`T`$, the pump intensity must be lowered accordingly. Eventually $`\mathrm{\Delta }R`$ reaches the noise floor of the experiment, which sets a limit on the smallest $`\gamma _{th}`$ that can be measured. In principle, the signal size could be increased by raising the intensity of the probe beam. However, this inevitably leads to an increase in the average temperature of the photoexcited region compared with the bath temperature. This problem becomes increasingly severe at low temperature, where the thermal conductivity of the sample is small. For the data to be presented, the probe intensity was maintained at 1.2 mW, a value which provides the best compromise between sensitivity and heating.

At each $`T`$, we obtain 2$`\gamma _{th}`$ from the extrapolation to zero of a linear fit to $`\gamma (0)`$ vs. $`\mathrm{\Delta }R`$. The temperature of the photoexcited region is determined through the numerical analysis described in Section II. Fig. 8 is a double logarithmic plot of 2$`\gamma _{th}`$ as a function of $`T`$, showing results for both YBCO Ortho II and a thin film sample of Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8 (BSCCO) segrethesis . At the upper limit of the $`T`$ range, $`\gamma _{th}`$ is nearly identical in the two materials. However, as mentioned previously, the dependence of $`\gamma _{th}`$ on $`T`$ becomes very strong in YBCO Ortho II at low temperature. If the functional form was assumed to be a power law, then $`\gamma _{th}`$ would approach a $`T^8`$ dependence.

We believe it to be more reasonable to assume that $`\gamma _{th}`$ in YBCO Ortho II decreases exponentially at low temperature. To analyze this exponential dependence, we compare the data with the formula,

$$2\gamma _{th}(T)=\frac{k_BT}{\mathrm{}}\frac{T}{T_0}exp\left[\mathrm{\Delta }_{th}(T)/k_BT\right].$$
(9)
We introduce a prefactor proportional to $`T^2`$ for two reasons, one theoretical and the other experimental. The theoretical reason is that $`n_{th}(T)`$ is predicted to vary as $`T^2`$ for a d-wave superconductor. The experimental reason is that in some samples of BSCCO $`\gamma _{th}`$ is proportional to $`T^2`$ over the temperature range from 10 K to 40 K segrethesis . (The dashed line in Fig. 8 indicates a $`T^2`$ dependence). Fitting Eq. 9 to the YBCO Ortho II data yields $`T_0=1100`$ K and a temperature dependent activation energy $`\mathrm{\Delta }_{th}`$ that is plotted in the inset. The origin of the exponential cutoff in $`\gamma _{th}`$ that appears in YBCO Ortho II and not in BSCCO is not understood at present. However, we note that analogous behavior is observed in the scattering rates observed by ac conductivity experiments. In the YBCO system, the mean free path increases exponentially with temperature towards a limit of several microns set by elastic processes turner . In BSCCO the $`T`$ dependence is much weaker and the limiting value is only a few hundred $`\AA `$ corson . It is possible that momentum conservation imposes constraints on the rate of quasiparticle-quasiparticle scattering in the cleaner YBCO system. These constraints may dictate that only Umklapp processes are allowed at low $`T`$, leading to an exponential $`T`$ dependence walker ; howell .

## V  Discussion

In analyzing the experimental data presented above, we begin (in Section V.A) with the most basic question: what type of excitation is probed by transient reflectivity experiments performed on the cuprate superconductors? We argue that these excitations are quasiparticles that occupy states close to the antinodal regions of the Brillouin zone. In Sections V.B and V.C we turn to a quantitative analysis of the decay rate of the photoexcited state. Section V.B focuses on our observation that the lifetime of a photoinjected quasiparticle diverges in the limit that $`T`$ and $`I`$ both tend to zero. We show theoretically that the constraints of momentum and energy conservation prevent thermalization of antinodal quasiparticles toward the nodes. In Section V.C we estimate the magnitude of the recombination coefficient $`\beta `$ from the experimental data, and discuss its theoretical interpretation. Finally, in Section V.D, we comment on possible reasons for the absence of a phonon bottleneck in the decay of the photoexcited state.

### V.1 What types of excitations are probed?

As a first guess, one might imagine that the photoinduced quasiparticles occupy states near the nodes, as these are the lowest energy excitations. This intuition is consistent with the generally accepted picture of the quasiparticle distribution function in the nonequilibrium state. In this picture the nonequilibrium quasiparticles rapidly adopt a Fermi-Dirac distribution, but with a chemical potential, and temperature, $`\mu ^{}`$, and $`T^{}`$, respectively, that are larger than their values in thermal equilibrium parker ; owen . In a d-wave superconductor this distribution describes a population of quasiparticles that is dominated by states near the nodes (’nodal’ quasiparticles). The occupation of states with energy greater than max($`\mu ^{},T^{}`$) is exponentially small.

On the other hand, the experimental evidence suggests that the photoexcited state is not a degenerate gas of nodal quasiparticles. Three observations, in particular, lead us to this conclusion:

(1) The diffusion coefficient of photoinjected quasiparticles is at least two orders of magnitude smaller than the diffusion coefficient of nodal quasiparticles gedik . The diffusive propagation of nonequilibrium quasiparticles in YBCO Ortho II was recently measured by the transient grating technique. Values for the diffusion coefficient of 20 cm2/s and 24 cm2/s were determined for motion along the a and b crystalline axes, respectively. This may be compared with a nodal quasiparticle diffusion coefficient of $``$ 6000 cm2/s as determined from microwave spectroscopy on the same sample turner .

(2) The reduction in the condensate spectral weight depends linearly on the pump intensity. Information about the photoinduced reduction of condensate spectral weight comes from visible pump-terahertz probe experiments averitt ; carnahan . At frequencies $``$1 THz, the optical conductivity $`\sigma (\omega )`$ is dominated by its imaginary part, $`\sigma _2`$, which is proportional to the condensate density. Following photoexcitation at 1.5 eV, $`\sigma _2`$ drops rapidly as the condensate density is diminished. At intensities below the saturation level, the loss of condensate density is a linear function of the energy deposited in the photoexcited volume.

The linear reduction of condensate density with pump energy is inconsistent with the physics of nodal quasiparticles. This point can be illustrated by considering the temperature dependence of the superfluid density, $`\rho _s`$. Nodal quasiparticles are responsible for the linear in $`T`$ decrease of $`\rho _s`$ observed in clean cuprate superconductors hardy . However, the energy stored in the nodal quasiparticle gas increases not as $`T`$, but as $`T^3`$. Therefore the reduction in $`\rho _s`$ due to nodal quasiparticles varies as the one-third power of the total energy in the quasiparticle gas. We would expect such a strongly sublinear relationship for a degenerate gas of nonequilibrium nodal quasiparticles as well.

(3) Far-IR measurements of the photoexcited state show that the optical spectral weight that is removed from the condensate by photoexcitation shifts to energies on the order of 50-100 meV, or several times the value of the maximum gap kaindl . As discussed above, thermal excitation of nodal quasiparticles does indeed remove spectral weight from the condensate. However, the spectral weight shifts to a very narrow ($`<`$30$`\mu `$eV) Drude peak centered on $`\omega =0`$. In contrast, the spectral weight removed from the condensate by photoexcitation shifts to frequencies that are $``$1000 times higher than the width of the nodal quasiparticle Drude peak. This is further evidence against a degenerate gas of nodal quasiparticles.

On the basis of the preceding arguments, we conclude that nodal quasiparticles do not dominate the population of quasiparticles created by photoexcitation. In other words, the quasiparticle distribution in the photoexcited state cannot be described as a Fermi-Dirac function with effective parameters $`\mu ^{}`$ and $`T^{}`$. The experiments are more consistent with a distibution function that is peaked at an energy above the chemical potential. Such a distribution can arise if it is not possible to scatter into the the nodal states during the lifetime of the photoexcited state. In Section 5.2 we show that the constraints of energy and momentum conservation severely restrict the rate at which hot quasiparticles scatter into states near the nodes.

### V.2 Stability of an isolated photoexcited particle

In section V.A, we argued that the quasiparticle distribution function in the photoexcited state peaks at an energy above the chemical potential and therefore is not of the Fermi-Dirac form. Such a nonequilibrium distribution can arise if quasiparticles cannot scatter into nodal states during the lifetime of the photoexcited state. However, we have also shown that this lifetime can be very long, reaching $``$ 0.6 ns at the lowest temperature and intensity accessible experimentally. By comparison a 30 meV excitation in a Fermi liquid (with Fermi energy $``$ 1 eV) would decay into electron-hole pairs in $``$3 ps. In the following we describe how the relative stability of a quasiparticle in a d-wave superconductor can arise from the severely restricted phase space for decay.

In a Fermi liquid, quasiparticles readily decay into particle-hole pairs because energy and momentum can be conserved in the process. However, the kinematic contraints are much more severe in the case of a $`d`$-wave superconductor. Consider the momentum-resolved particle-hole excitation spectrum in the two cases. In the Fermi liquid the particle-hole spectrum forms a broad continuum that extends from zero wavevector to twice $`k_F`$, even as the pair energy tends to zero.

The d-wave superconductor differs from the Fermi liquid in that the Fermi contour shrinks to four nodal points. As a consequence, the pair excitation spectrum is much more localized in momentum space. Fig. 9 illustrates the momentum-resolved pair excitation spectrum of a d-wave superconductor. Each plot is a color-scale depiction of the density of two-particle excitations of a given energy in the first Brillouin zone. The spectra were calculated using a parameterization of the quasiparticle dispersion obtained by Norman norman  from a fit to ARPES data. At very low energies, the pair spectrum is localized near nine discrete wavevectors that represent the creation of particles at the nodes. As the energy of the pair increases, the locus of possible wavevectors spreads out. However, for energies that are less than $`\mathrm{\Delta }_0`$, the allowed momenta remain clustered near the nine zero-energy wavevectors.

In order for a single quasiparticle to scatter and emit a pair, its change in energy and momentum, $`\mathrm{\Delta }ϵ`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }k`$, must match that of the pair, $`ϵ_{pair}`$ and $`k_{pair}`$. The constraints imposed by this condition are illustrated in the diagrams shown in Fig. 10, which describe the possible decay events of a hot quasiparticle. For this example we have chosen a quasiparticle with energy 40 meV and momentum on the Fermi contour of the normal state. Each diagram corresponds to a fixed energy transfer in the scattering event. The color scale indicates the location of allowed values of $`\mathrm{\Delta }k`$ and $`k_{pair}`$ at the transfer energy. A scattering event is kinematically allowed only at momentum transfers where the two sets of wavevectors overlap.

Fig. 10 illustrates how kinematics prevent the inelastic scattering of the hot quasiparticle. For example, consider the scattering events with the largest possible energy change, 40 meV. To give up all its energy the hot quasiparticle must scatter to one of the nodes, thus there are only four allowed values of $`\mathrm{\Delta }k`$. (The four points are not visible in Fig. 10(a)). One of these four wavevectors just touches the perimeter of the elliptical region of pair wavevectors, which indicates an allowed scattering event. In this scattering event the hot quasiparticle scatters to the node, with the simultaneous creation of a quasihole at the node and a quasiparticle at the energy and momentum of the hot quasiparticle. This exchange process, although kinematically allowed, does not lead to a change in the particle distribution function.

If the hot quasiparticle does not lose all of its energy, there are more choices for the final momentum. The locus of allowed $`\mathrm{\Delta }k`$ expands, becoming visible as arcs in panels (b) through (e) of Fig. 10. However, as the arcs expand the locus of pair creation wavevectors shrinks. Fig. 10 shows that the region of allowed $`k_{pair}`$ shrinks faster than the expansion of allowed $`\mathrm{\Delta }k`$, so that the two regions fail to overlap at any energy transfer less than the energy of the hot quasiparticle. The absence of overlap demonstrates that the thermalization of the hot quasiparticle is forbidden because of kinematic constraints. Recently, Howell et al. howell  reached a similar conclusion based on an analytical, rather than numerical, approach.

The kinematic constraints in this example are specific to quasiparticles near the normal state Fermi contour. They are a consequence of the rapid decrease of quasiparticle velocity with increasing distance from the node. For this reason, we anticipate that not all quasiparticles of a given energy will be stable. The contours of constant quasiparticle energy are distorted ellipses centered on each of the nodes. Quasiparticles near the major axis vertex of the ellipse will be stable, as we have seen. However, the velocity for particles near the minor axis vertex is comparable the nodal quasiparticle velocity. For these quasiparticles there are no kinematic constraints to prevent rapid thermalization. Thus, we anticipate that after a short time following pulsed injection only nonequilibrium particles near the major axis vertex will survive.

### V.3 Bimolecular recombination

#### V.3.1 Estimating $`\beta `$

In the previous section we have seen that kinematic constraints can stabilize an isolated antinodal quasiparticle. However, our experiments show that a pair of quasiparticles can convert to a state which no longer contributes to $`\mathrm{\Delta }R`$. We can be confident that this conversion requires two particles, and not more, because the decay rate increases linearly with density. The coefficient that relates the decay rate to the density, $`\beta `$, is directly related to the cross-section for inelastic scattering of two quasiparticles. Thus the magnitude of $`\beta `$ is of fundamental importance as a measure of the coupling of quasiparticles to some other excitation of the interacting electronic system.

We turn next to estimating $`\beta `$ from the measured dependence of the decay rate on density. Experimentally, we measure both the nonequilibrium decay rate $`\beta n_{ph}`$ and the thermal equilibrium rate $`\beta n_{th}`$. To extract $`\beta `$ from these measurements, we need to know either $`n_{ph}`$ or $`n_{th}`$. Unfortunately, neither quantity is directly determined from the data, and we need additional assumptions to estimate these quantities. To estimate $`n_{ph}`$ we use energy conservation to convert from laser energy density to quasiparticle density. In the linear regime of $`\gamma `$ vs. $`I`$ a recombination rate of $`10^{11}`$ s-1 results from a laser energy density of 0.1 J-cm-3. If photon energy is converted entirely to 40 meV quasiparticles, then their initial density is $`10^{12}`$ cm-2, and therefore $`\beta 0.1`$ cm2/s.

We can also determine $`\beta `$ from the thermal equilibrium recombination rate as well, if we know $`n_{th}(T)`$. For a d-wave superconductor,

$$n_{th}(T)=\frac{\pi v_F}{6v_2}\left(\frac{k_BT}{\mathrm{}v_F}\right)^2,$$
(10)
where $`v_F`$ and $`v_2`$ are the nodal quasiparticle velocities perpendicular and parallel to the Fermi contour, respectively mchiao . Based on the RT equations, we would expect the thermal equilibrium decay rate to be proportional to $`n_{th}`$ and thus vary with temperature as $`T^2`$. Instead, we find experimentally that in YBCO Ortho II the limiting behavior of $`\gamma _{th}`$ is exponential rather than power law. The unexpected exponential cutoff of the recombination rate may be related to a similar exponential cutoff seen in the momentum scattering rate as measured through microwave spectroscopy hosseini .

Despite the exponential cut-off of the recombination rate at low $`T`$, we can attempt to estimate $`\beta `$ from the thermal recombination rate at higher $`T`$. Above $``$ 20 K, $`\gamma _{th}(T)`$ is not inconsistent with a quadratic dependence on temperature. In that range we found that $`2\gamma _{th}(T)(k_BT/\mathrm{})T/T_0`$, with $`T_0=`$1100 K. Assuming that $`\gamma _{th}=\beta n_{th}`$, and using Eq. 10 to estimate $`n_{th}(T)`$ (with $`v_F/v_2=10`$) we find $`\beta =0.26`$ cm2/s. Considering the approximations and assumptions involved, this value is quite close to the one determined from the nonequilibrium recombination rate.

#### V.3.2 Theoretical approaches for $`\beta `$

Within the context of BCS theory, the process of recombination is the annihiliation of a quasiparticle pair with the simultaneous emission of a gap energy phonon. The theory of the recombination rate of BCS quasiparticles was developed by Kaplan et al. kaplan , whose calculations assumed an isotropic s-wave gap and the breaking of momentum conservation through strong elastic scattering (’dirty limit’). Their result for the recombination rate, expressed through our definition of recombination coefficient, is $`\beta =4\pi \alpha ^2(2\mathrm{\Delta })F(2\mathrm{\Delta })/\mathrm{}N(0)`$, where $`\alpha `$, $`F`$, and $`N`$, are the electron-phonon coupling strength, density of phonon states, and density of electron states, respectively. While it is very useful to have this explicit result to compare with, we must bear in mind that the cuprate superconductors do not satisfy the assumptions upon which this calculation is based. The cuprates are 2D rather than 3D, d-wave rather than s-wave, and are in the clean, rather than the dirty, limit of elastic scattering.

We are not aware of a calculation of the phonon-mediated recombination rate applicable to the cuprate superconductors. However, in anticipation of such a calculation, we define a dimensionless constant $`C\mathrm{}\beta N(0)`$, that parametrizes the electron-phonon coupling strength in the clean limit. If in addition we express the 2D electronic density of states through an effective mass $`m^{}`$, then we obtain the simple formula $`\beta =C\mathrm{}/m^{}`$. Assuming an effective mass that is three times the free electron mass, $`\mathrm{}/m^{}=0.3`$ cm2/s, so that $`\beta =0.1`$ cm2/s corresponds to $`C1/3`$. It is striking that $`C`$ is of order unity. This suggests that, while we do not know if phonon emission is indeed the mechanism for quasiparticle recombination, we have identified $`\mathrm{}/m^{}`$ as the ’natural unit’ for $`\beta `$.

The body of experimental results on the cuprate superconductors have led many researchers to conclude that quasiparticle scattering is determined by electron-electron, rather than electron-phonon interactions. The BCS theory of recombination was adapted by Quinlan et al. scalapino  to the case where quasiparticle-pair energy is converted to antiferromagnetic spin fluctuations, rather than phonons. As we explain below, the results of this calculation cannot be compared directly with $`\beta `$. The recombination rate at low $`T`$ is predicted to vary as $`T^3`$. Therefore $`\gamma _{th}`$ is not proportional to $`n_{th}`$, which, as we have seen, varies as $`T^2`$. Expressed in the language of this paper, $`\beta `$ vanishes in the limit that $`T`$ goes to zero, in contrast to the $`T`$-independent value observed experimentally.

The prediction that $`\gamma T^3`$ while $`n_{th}T^2`$ is a reflection of the underlying Fermi liquid theory (FLT). In FLT the normal state scattering rate varies as $`T^2`$, while the thermal quasiparticle density varies as $`T`$. The corresponding quantities vary as one higher power of $`T`$ for the d-wave superconductor because its density of states is linear in energy, rather than contant. Thus it is a general consequence of the phase space of Fermi liquids that the quasiparticle scattering rate is not simply proportional the quasiparticle density.

It is interesting, and perhaps relevant, to recall here the celebrated fact that the high-$`T_c`$ cuprates violate this central prediction of FLT. That is to say, the normal state scattering rate varies linearly, rather than quadratically, with the temperature. In this marginal Fermi liquid (MFL) varma , the scattering rate $`2k_BT/\mathrm{}`$ is proportional to the quasiparticle density $`N(0)k_BT`$. The coefficient of proportionality, or $`\beta _{MFL}`$, is simply $`\mathrm{}/\pi m^{}`$. Evaluating this expression with $`m^{}=3m_0`$ yields $`\beta _{MFL}`$=0.1 cm2/s, which is remarkably close to the experimental value. This agreement suggests that there may be a close connection between the quasiparticle scattering in the normal state and the antinodal quasiparticle recombination in the superconducting state.

### V.4 Absence of phonon bottleneck

In the previous section we described two mechanisms for quasiparticle pair recombination. In the more familiar one, the pair is destroyed with simultaneous creation of a 2$`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ phonon. In the second mechanism the pair is converted to an electronic excitation, such as an antiferromagnetic fluctuation. Both mechanisms can provide an explanation for the absence of a bottleneck. In the second mechanism, the quasiparticle pair decays to other particle-hole excitations. If the number of particles generated in the pair-destruction process is two or more, then it is highly unlikely for the reverse process to occur. The low rate for the reverse process leads to the absence of a bottleneck.

On the other hand, phonon-mediated recombination is inherently susceptible to a bottleneck because only one particle (the phonon) is created when the pair is destroyed. Following pulsed injection, the bottleneck sets in when the pair destruction and creation rates become equal, or $`\beta n_{ss}^2=2\gamma _{pc}N_{ss}`$, where $`n_{ss}`$ and $`N_{ss}`$ are the quasiequilibrium steady-state densities of quasiparticles and $`2\mathrm{\Delta }`$ phonons, respectively. The size of $`n_{ss}`$ relative to the initial density $`n_0`$ is a measure of the strength of the bottleneck. This ratio can be calculated using conservation of energy, which implies that $`2n_{ss}+N_{ss}=2n_0`$. The result is

$$\frac{n_{ss}}{n_0}=\frac{\lambda }{2}(\sqrt{1+\frac{4}{\lambda }}1),$$
(11)
where $`\lambda 2\gamma _{pc}/\beta n_0`$. The strong bottleneck regime corresponds to $`\lambda 1`$, in which case the steady state density nearly equals the initial density, $`n_{ss}/n_011/\lambda `$. On the other hand, if $`\lambda 1`$ the bottleneck is practically nonexistent and the steady state density is very small, $`n_{ss}/n_0\lambda ^{1/2}`$.

To determine whether the cuprates are in the strong or weak bottleneck regime, we must estimate the magnitude of $`\lambda `$. To do so we first recognize that $`\lambda `$ must exceed a $`\lambda _{min}`$, obtained by setting $`n_0`$ equal to $`N(0)\mathrm{\Delta }`$, the maximum quasiparticle density in the superconducting state. We can evaluate $`\lambda _{min}`$ in the dirty s-wave case, as Kaplan et al. kaplan  have calculated $`\gamma _{pc}`$ as well as $`\beta `$ in this regime. The characteristic phonon decay rate is given by $`\gamma _{pc}=4\pi ^2N(0)\alpha ^2\mathrm{\Delta }/\mathrm{}N`$, where $`N`$ is the number density of ions. Given this phonon decay rate, we find that

$$\lambda _{min}=\frac{2\pi }{\mathrm{}}\frac{N(0)}{NF(2\mathrm{\Delta })}.$$
(12)
The simplicity of this result is a consequence of detailed balance in the dirty-limit. Eq. 12 shows that the strength of the bottleneck is determined by the ratio of the electron density of states at the Fermi level to the phonon density of states at 2$`\mathrm{\Delta }`$. It is clear that the high-$`T_c`$ cuprates can be in the weak bottleneck regime, where $`\lambda `$ is very small, in constrast with conventional low-$`T_c`$ superconductors. In the high-$`T_c`$ materials the gap energy is large, and $`2\mathrm{\Delta }`$ coincides with large phonon density of states peaks associated with optic phonons. Furthermore, the density of states at the Fermi level is small compared with conventional metals. Both factors favor small $`\lambda `$. In contrast, in conventional superconductors phonons with energy $`2\mathrm{\Delta }`$ lie in the low-energy tail of the acoustic spectrum. Therefore the density of resonant phonon states is small. This fact, together with the large electronic density of states, place conventional superconductors in the strong bottleneck regime.

## VI Summary

The most significant observation reported in this paper is the strong dependence of the decay rate of the transient reflectivity on both temperature and pump laser intensity. At low $`T`$ the decay rate is a linear function of $`I`$. At low $`I`$ the decay rate decreases exponentially with decreasing $`T`$. At the lowest values of $`T`$ and $`I`$ probed by our experiments, the lifetime of the photoexited state becomes extremely long, $`600`$ ps. There is no indication that the lifetime would not continue to increase if the experiment could access lower values of $`T`$ and $`I`$.

In our analysis of the data, we first addressed the nature of the excitations probed by measuring $`\mathrm{\Delta }R`$. We presented arguments that $`\mathrm{\Delta }R`$ is proportional to the density of high-energy or antinodal quasiparticles created by the laser excitation. We explained theoretically why such particles, although not the lowest energy excitations, could be highly metastable at low temperature and density. The metastability is a consequence of the limited phase space for decay of high-energy quasiparticles to the nodal regions of the Brillouin zone. As the phase space restrictions rely on momentum conservation, the degree of metastability may be expected to be highly sensitive to disorder.

Having understood the stability of an isolated quasiparticle, we sought a quantitative understanding of the decay process that occurs when a pair of quasiparticles interact. We estimated the magnitude of the recombination coefficient, $`\beta `$, from both the $`T`$ and $`I`$ dependence of the decay rate. We emphasized that $`\beta `$ is a direct measure of the strength of quasiparticle interactions. In addressing the theoretical approaches to the recombination rate, we identified $`\mathrm{}/m^{}`$ as the natural unit for $`\beta `$ in a two-dimensional superconductor. We pointed out that while recombination is assumed to be phonon-mediated in conventional superconductors, electron-electron mediated processes must be considered as well in the cuprates. In the context of phonon-mediated processes, we discussed the need to extend the work of Kaplan et al. kaplan  to the 2D, clean limit that is applicable to the cuprates. In the electron-electron mediated case, more work is needed to understand the underlying recombination process. As a motivating factor, we pointed out the remarkable coincidence between the normal state scattering rate and the superconducting state recombination rate. We showed that both processes have the same dependence on the quasiparticle density, which can be described by an interaction coefficient equal to $`\mathrm{}/\pi m^{}`$.

This work was supported by NSF-9870258, DOE-DE-AC03-76SF00098, CIAR and NSERC.


text:
# Two-dimensional Bose-Einstein condensate in an optical surface trap

## Abstract

We report on the creation of a two-dimensional Bose-Einstein condensate of cesium atoms in a gravito-optical surface trap. The condensate is produced a few $`\mu `$m above a dielectric surface on an evanescent-wave atom mirror. After evaporative cooling by all-optical means, expansion measurements for the tightly confined vertical motion show energies well below the vibrational energy quantum. The presence of a condensate is observed in two independent ways by a magnetically induced collapse at negative scattering length and by measurements of the horizontal expansion.

Quantum gases in lower dimensions Pricoupenko et al. (2003) currently attract considerable interest as model systems to study a wide range of phenomena related to statistical physics, condensed matter physics, and other areas. Dimensionally reduced systems may exhibit strikingly new properties in comparison to the three-dimensional case. Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) does not occur in 1D or 2D in the case of an infinite homogeneous system Bagnato and Kleppner (1991), but it is possible in highly anisotropic traps at finite particle number Ketterle and van Druten (1996). Only recently, experiments have entered regimes of BEC in 1D Görlitz et al. (2001); Schreck et al. (2001) or 2D Görlitz et al. (2001).

The interest in 2D BEC goes back to early experiments on spin-polarized hydrogen on a liquid-helium surface Walraven , for which evidence of quantum degeneracy has been obtained Safonov et al. (1998). The gradual onset of coherence and formation of quasi-condensates have already been discussed in this context Kagan et al. (1987). Ultracold, laser-manipulated atomic quantum gases offer many more intriguing features like precise control of the external confinement, tunability of interatomic interactions, and superb experimental access. Novel phenomena like modified interaction properties have been predicted for 2D quantum gases tightly confined in one direction Petrov et al. (2000). The exploration of these phenomena relies on the development of appropriate trapping schemes.

In this Letter, we report on the creation of a two-dimensional BEC of cesium atoms by evaporative cooling in a highly anisotropic surface trap. Our gravito-optical surface trap (GOST) is based on an evanescent wave (EW) atom mirror in combination with a horizontally confining optical dipole potential Grimm et al. (2000), see illustration in Fig. 1. The repulsive EW is formed on the surface of a prism by a blue-detuned laser beam undergoing total internal reflection. Since gravity pushes the atoms onto the prism the vertical motion is tightly confined in a gravito-optical potential

$$U(z)=U_0\mathrm{e}^{2z/\mathrm{\Lambda }}+mgz,$$
(1)
where $`z`$ is the vertical distance from the surface and $`U_0`$, $`m`$, and $`g`$ denote the maximum EW potential, the atomic mass, and the gravitational acceleration, respectively. The EW field decay length is given by $`\mathrm{\Lambda }=\lambda /2\pi \times (n^2\mathrm{sin}^2\theta 1)^{1/2}`$, where $`n`$ is the refractive index of the medium. The potential minimum is located at a height $`z_0=\frac{1}{2}\mathrm{\Lambda }\mathrm{ln}(2U_0/mg\mathrm{\Lambda })`$ and provides a trap frequency of $`\omega _z=(2g/\mathrm{\Lambda })^{1/2}`$. The quantized nature of the motion in such a trap and the behavior of a bosonic gas were theoretically investigated in Wallis et al. (1992); Wallis (1996).

The trap loading procedure is based on methods described in our previous work Ovchinnikov et al. (1997); Hammes et al. (2002). We release cesium atoms from a magneto-optical trap into a large-volume GOST where horizontal confinement is realized with a blue-detuned hollow beam (diameter 0.8 mm, power 50 mW, detuning 50 GHz). In this stage the EW is realized with a 100-mW diode laser and tuned a few GHz above resonance with atoms in the lower hyperfine state ($`F=3`$). Evanescent-wave Sisyphus cooling provides a sample of $`10^7`$ Cs atoms in $`F=3`$ at a temperature of $``$$`10\mu `$K. Then we introduce the focussed, vertically propagating 5-W laser beam of an Yb fibre laser (wavelength 1064 nm, beam waist 130 $`\mu `$m) to provide a narrow dimple potential in the center of the trapped atom cloud with a depth of $``$50$`\mu `$K and a horizontal oscillation frequency of 130 Hz. We wait for 1 s until the dimple is filled through elastic collisions with a high-density sample of unpolarized Cs atoms in $`F=3`$. Finally the blue-detuned hollow beam is turned off.

For further experiments it is crucial to strongly suppress photon scattering and light-induced loss. Therefore the near-resonant EW is replaced by a far-detuned EW, which is derived from the 700-mW beam of a Ti:Sapph laser at a wavelength of 839 nm. This EW is produced in a nearly round spot on the surface of the fused-silica prism ($`n=1.45`$) with a diameter of 500 $`\mu `$m (1/$`\mathrm{e}^2`$ intensity drop) and maximum potential height of $`U_0k_B\times 50`$$`\mu `$K. The angle of incidence $`\theta `$ is set $`4.2(1.5)`$ mrad above the critical angle, which leads to calculated values of the decay length and the vertical trap frequency of $`\mathrm{\Lambda }=1.4(3)\mu `$m and $`\omega _z/2\pi =600(50)`$ Hz. The corresponding gravito-optical potential is shown in Fig. 1(a). The potential minimum is located about 4 $`\mu `$m above the surface. The trap frequency can be measured by parametric excitation. Fig. 1(b) shows a loss feature induced by modulating the EW power at the trap frequency yielding $`\omega _z/2\pi =550(50)`$Hz tra .

For evaporative cooling we optically pump the atoms into the lowest spin state $`F=3`$, $`m_F=3`$, which offers very favorable scattering properties. In this state two-body loss is completely suppressed and convenient magnetic tuning of the s-wave scattering length $`a`$ is possible over a wide range Kerman et al. (2001). At a magnetic field of $`26.8`$G where $`a=440a_0`$ ($`a_0`$ is Bohr’s radius) we find an optimum situation with a large elastic cross section for evaporative cooling at moderate three-body loss Weber et al. (2003a, b). At this stage we have a sample of $`10^6`$ atoms at a temperature of $`9\mu `$K with peak values for number and phase-space density of the order of $`4\times 10^{12}`$ cm<sup>-3</sup> and $`5\times 10^4`$, respectively.

Forced evaporative cooling is performed by ramping down the power of the red-detuned beam by more than three orders of magnitude. The total ramp consists of two subsequent exponential ramps. The first ramp reduces the power from initially 5 W down to 470 mW within 2 s, the second ramp lowers the power further to a final ramp power $`P_\mathrm{f}`$ of typically a few mW in 3.5 s. To counteract the density decrease when the potential is ramped down we adiabatically reduce the waist of the red-detuned beam to 64 $`\mu `$m by moving the focussing lens synchronously with the 5.5-s ramp.

A release-and-recapture method Ovchinnikov et al. (1997); Hammes et al. (2002, 2003) is applied to observe the vertical expansion of the sample and thus to measure the vertical expansion energy $`E_{\mathrm{exp}}`$. We turn off the EW for a short variable release time. Without EW the sample drops onto the surface while undergoing a vertical expansion. Those atoms that hit the room-temperature surface get lost. After the short release time the EW is turned on again to prevent the remaining atoms from hitting the surface, and their number is measured after recapture into the MOT by taking a fluorescence image. Corresponding measurements without release are used to normalize the data and to determine the remaining fraction as a function of the release time. In the classical regime of a thermal gas with negligible effect of the quantized vertical motion, $`E_{\mathrm{exp}}`$ is directly related to the temperature $`T`$ by $`E_{\mathrm{exp}}=\frac{1}{2}k_BT`$, where $`k_B`$ is Boltzmann’s constant. This classical regime ranges down to temperatures of $``$100 nK.

Fig. 2 shows a measurement taken with 2400 atoms remaining at $`P_\mathrm{f}=1.6`$ mW, where the horizontal trap frequency is 10 Hz. We will show later that this sample is Bose condensed. The position of the sharp edge corresponds to the release height and the steepness is related to the energy spread. A corresponding fit of an error function to the data yields a release height of $`z_0=4.3(1)\mu `$m and an expansion energy $`E_{\mathrm{exp}}=\frac{1}{2}k_B\times 16(2)`$ nK.

The measured vertical expansion energy is shown as a function of the final ramp power $`P_\mathrm{f}`$ in Fig. 3. With decreasing power down to about 3 mW, we observe that $`E_{\mathrm{exp}}`$ linearly follows the reduced horizontal trap depth $`\widehat{U}`$ (see solid line). This shows that evaporative cooling takes place with an approximately fixed relation between temperature $`T`$ and trap depth $`\widehat{U}`$ ($`k_BT/\widehat{U}6`$). For power values below 3 mW we observe that $`E_{\mathrm{exp}}`$ levels off at about $`\frac{1}{2}k_B\times 16`$nK. This value is well below the vibrational energy quantum $`\mathrm{}\omega =k_B\times 26`$nK and close to the zero point energy of $`k_B\times 13`$ nK. A comparison with the energies $`E_\nu =(\nu +\frac{1}{2})\mathrm{}\omega _z`$ of the quantum states in the vertical motion (see dashed lines in Fig. 3) shows that a two-dimensional gas is realized. This atomic “pancake” is created in a surface trap with an aspect ratio of about 50:1.

According to a calculation of the phase-space density based on the measured temperatures and the known trap frequencies, we expect the onset of BEC approximately at a final ramp power $`P_\mathrm{f}`$10 mW. Unfortunately, our release-and-recapture method does not provide sufficient information to extract two-component distributions in that regime and the data of Fig. 3 do not show any signature of a phase transition. We have therefore developed two other methods to show the presence of a BEC in the surface trap.

Our first method to prove BEC relies on a controlled collapse of the condensate at negative scattering length Roberts et al. (2001), a phenomenon that does not occur in a thermal gas. The scattering length is known to be negative for magnetic fields below 17 G and the collapse of a Cs BEC below that field has been demonstrated in Weber et al. (2003a). In a series of collapse measurements performed with a trapped sample at $`P_\mathrm{f}=1.6`$ mW we switched the magnetic field from the evaporation field of 26.8 G to a variable field between 0 G ($`a3000a_0`$) and 40 G ($`a1000a_0`$) for a short time interval of 20 ms and measured the resulting loss. When the scattering length is negative the contraction of the BEC leads to a dramatic increase in density. In this case three-body recombination causes very fast loss. In a thermal gas, no contraction can happen and three-body loss at moderate scattering length is too slow to cause any significant reduction of the trapped atom number.

The magnetically induced collapse is demonstrated by the data in Fig. 4. For fields above the zero crossing at 17 G switching at $`a>0`$ does not induce any significant loss. Below 17 G where $`a<0`$ a rapid decrease in the trapped atom number is observed. Already at $`a=150a_0`$ realized at 14.7 G almost half of the atoms are lost. This rapid loss at a field where the three-body loss coefficient is relatively small can only be explained by the huge density increase occurring during the condensate collapse.

In order to identify the final evaporation ramp power $`P_\mathrm{f}`$ where the phase transition occurs, we measure the induced collapse loss as a function of $`P_\mathrm{f}`$. In Fig. 5(a) we plot the fraction of atoms that is observed to remain after a 20-ms application of a collapse field of 14.7 G. Above $`P_\mathrm{f}20`$ mW no significant loss is observed as expected for a thermal gas, which cannot undergo a collapse. Below 20 mW rapidly increasing loss sets in, which we interpret as the collapse of a growing condensate fraction. From this observation we infer that the phase transition takes place at a power of $`P_\mathrm{f}20`$ mW, where we have 15 000 atoms left at a temperature of 150 nK. This is somewhat above the ramp power of $``$10 mW that we would expect from calculations of the phase-space density, but still lies in the corresponding error range.

Our second method to observe the onset of BEC is based on a horizontal release-and-recapture technique. After evaporation with a final ramp power $`P_\mathrm{f}`$ we turn off the horizontally confining attractive laser beam for a long time interval of 400 ms. For recapturing the remaining atoms we then turn on the horizontally confining beam at a fixed power of 22 mW. No atoms are recaptured for thermal samples ($`P_\mathrm{f}>20`$ mW) as shown in Fig. 5(b). For deeper evaporation with $`P_\mathrm{f}`$ below 20 mW we observe a rapidly increasing number of recaptured atoms which we interpret as a consequence of the much slower expansion of a condensate. The fact that the recapture signal occurs at the same final power as the onset of the collapse loss strongly supports this interpretation.

In the horizontal expansion measurements we observe significant recapture signals even after a few seconds of free evolution on the EW without the horizontally confining beam. This can not be explained by a slow expansion alone but rather indicates the presence of a horizontal trapping mechanism. An explanation might be the roughness of an EW atom mirror Henkel et al. (1997) leading to shallow potential wells. Surface imperfections of the prism or the interference with residual stray light can produce corrugations in the optical potential of the evanescent wave. A trapping effect could thus emerge from the pinning of the condensate to such defects.

With better knowledge on the phase transition we finally revisit the data of Fig. 3. The transition takes place at $`P_\mathrm{f}20`$ mW in a 3D regime when the thermal component populates about five vertical quantum states. With decreasing values of $`P_\mathrm{f}`$ a crossover to a 2D regime takes place. For $`P_\mathrm{f}2`$ mW a 2D BEC is formed, for which we estimate a chemical potential of $`k_B\times 5`$nK. In this 2D regime, the zero-point energy of $`k_B\times 13`$nK dominates the vertical motion.

In order to further explore the properties of the 2D BEC in our GOST we are presently developing a new apparatus that offers much faster magnetic field control and much better optical access. These improvements will enable us to implement both in-situ and expansion imaging techniques. Magnetic levitation will allow us to overcompensate gravity and thus to observe a freely expanding atom cloud after release from the surface trap. For enhancing the anisotropy the two options are magnetic compression against the EW or the application of an additional attractive EW Hammes et al. (2003). The trapped two-dimensional condensate will allows us to study elementary excitations like solitons and vortices, the properties of which may exhibit striking differences as compared to the three-dimensional case. Further intriguing possibilities are offered by the creation of optical surface lattices created through the interference of different evanescent waves.

In conclusion, we have realized BEC in an optical surface trap based on an evanescent-wave atom mirror. During evaporative cooling we reach the phase transition in a 3D situation before the condensate is brought into the 2D regime by further increasing the trap anisotropy. The system opens up new possibilities to study the widely unexplored properties of degenerate quantum gases in two dimensions.

###### Acknowledgements.

We gratefully acknowledge support by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) within SFB 15 (project part 15) and by the European Community through the Research Training Network “FASTNet” under contract No. HPRN-CT-2002-00304.