Cold Rubidium Molecules Formed in a Magneto-Optical Trap

Gabbanini, C.; Fioretti, A.; Lucchesini, A.; Gozzini, S.; Mazzoni, Marina

doi:10.1103/physrevlett.84.2814

Cited by 178 publications

(109 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…All four potentials scale as 1/R 3 at long range providing an efficient PA mechanism. 0 − g (P 3/2 ) is known from PA with a CW laser [44] to provide an efficient stabilization mechanism due to the soft repulsive wall of the longrange well. However, a technical difficulty might prevent this route to be feasible: The depth of 0 − g (P 3/2 ) well is only about 28 cm −1 , and pulse shaping over such a small frequency range is hampered by the spectral resolution of the pulse shaper.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Short-pulse photoassociation in rubidium below theD1line

2006

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Photoassociation of two ultracold rubidium atoms and the subsequent formation of stable molecules in the singlet ground and lowest triplet states is investigated theoretically. The method employs laser pulses inducing transitions via excited states correlated to the 5S + 5P 1/2 asymptote. Weakly bound molecules in the singlet ground or lowest triplet state can be created by a single pulse while the formation of more deeply bound molecules requires a two-color pump-dump scenario. More deeply bound molecules in the singlet ground or lowest triplet state can be produced only if efficient mechanisms for both pump and dump steps exist. While long-range 1/R 3 -potentials allow for efficient photoassociation, stabilization is facilitated by the resonant spin-orbit coupling of the 0 + u states. Molecules in the singlet ground state bound by a few wavenumbers can thus be formed. This provides a promising first step toward ground state molecules which are ultracold in both translational and vibrational degrees of freedom.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Short-pulse photoassociation in rubidium below theD1line

2006

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“…1, about 10 7 85 Rb atoms are captured in a magneto-optical trap (MOT) at a density of 10 10 atoms/cm 3 and a temperature of 100 µ K. Diatomic rubidium molecules continuously form in the magneto-optical trap due to either three body collisions or light assisted two-body collisions of trapped Rb atoms. They populate predominantly the highest vibrational states below the dissociation limit in the triplet electronic ground state [23,24]. These Rb 2 molecules, which are not trapped by the trap magnetic field, are detected in this experiment via resonant two photon ionization and time-of-flight mass analysis.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This indicates that, in the regime of pulse energies employed in the experiment, the interaction with the molecules has the character of an effective one-photon excitation [27]. According to [23], the molecules in the MOT initially populate the highest levels in the a 3 Σ + u state. Due to selection rules and Franck-Condon factors, they are preferably excited to the 0 − g and 1 g 5s5p 1/2 states (see Fig.…”

Section: Laser-induced Lossmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Starting from a narrow band in the a 3 Σ + u state [23,24], molecules are excited into bound states below the D1 resonance. By shifting the peak positions, the algorithm finds transition frequencies from this band to certain vibrational states, thereby sharing the pulse energy more efficiently than a broad Gaussian pulse.…”

Section: Application Of Coherent Controlmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Coherent control with shaped femtosecond laser pulses applied to ultracold molecules

et al. 2006

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We report on coherent control of excitation processes of translationally ultracold rubidium dimers in a magneto-optical trap by using shaped femtosecond laser pulses. Evolution strategies are applied in a feedback loop in order to optimize the photoexcitation of the Rb2 molecules, which subsequently undergo ionization or fragmentation. A superior performance of the resulting pulses compared to unshaped pulses of the same pulse energy is obtained by distributing the energy among specific spectral components. The demonstration of coherent control to ultracold ensembles opens a path to actively influence fundamental photo-induced processes in molecular quantum gases.

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“…After a lifetime of 12 ns they spontaneously decay to their electronic ground state, thereby populating the uppermost vibrational levels of the 3 Σ + u 5s+5s metastable state [33,35]. The contributions of the excited state trap-light-formed molecules (1 probe photon) and the ground state traplight-formed molecules (1 pump + 1 probe photon) to the molecular ion signal are investigated separately.…”

Section: Competing Processesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Photoassociation and coherent transient dynamics in the interaction of ultracold rubidium atoms with shaped femtosecond pulses. I. Experiment

et al. 2009

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We experimentally investigate various processes present in the photoassociative interaction of an ultracold atomic sample with shaped femtosecond laser pulses. We demonstrate the photoassociation of pairs of rubidium atoms into electronically excited, bound molecular states using spectrally cut femtosecond laser pulses tuned below the rubidium D1 or D2 asymptote. Time-resolved pumpprobe spectra reveal coherent oscillations of the molecular formation rate, which are due to coherent transient dynamics in the electronic excitation. The oscillation frequency corresponds to the detuning of the spectral cut position to the asymptotic transition frequency of the rubidium D1 or D2 lines, respectively. Measurements of the molecular photoassociation signal as a function of the pulse energy reveal a non-linear dependence and indicate a non-perturbative excitation process. Chirping the association laser pulse allowed us to change the phase of the coherent transients. Furthermore, a signature for molecules in the electronic ground state is found, which is attributed to molecule formation by femtosecond photoassociation followed by spontaneous decay. In a subsequent article [A. Merli et al., submitted] quantum mechanical calculations are presented, which compare well with the experimental data and reveal further details about the observed coherent transient dynamics.

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Cold Rubidium Molecules Formed in a Magneto-Optical Trap

Cited by 178 publications

References 23 publications

Short-pulse photoassociation in rubidium below theD1line

Short-pulse photoassociation in rubidium below theD1line

Coherent control with shaped femtosecond laser pulses applied to ultracold molecules

Photoassociation and coherent transient dynamics in the interaction of ultracold rubidium atoms with shaped femtosecond pulses. I. Experiment

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