Ultracold Triplet Molecules in the Rovibrational Ground State

Lang, Florian; Winkler, Klaus; Strauss, C.; Grimm, Rudolf; Denschlag, Johannes Hecker

doi:10.1103/physrevlett.101.133005

Cited by 383 publications

(402 citation statements)

References 36 publications

(33 reference statements)

Supporting

Mentioning

385

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…For KRb, the rovibronic ground state was reached, resulting in a near-quantum-degenerate gas of fermionic ground-state molecules 16 . Transfer of molecules in the presence of an optical lattice has been implemented for Rb 2 molecules 17 , and the lowest rovibrational level of the shallow triplet a 3 + u potential was reached 18 . Our molecular quantum-gas preparation procedure is summarized in Fig.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For STIRAP in the presence of the lattice, the lattice light must not impede the transfer through optical excitation or by creating unwanted coherences. Furthermore, the lattice wavelength has to be chosen such that the dynamical polarizabilities for |1 and |5 are closely matched to avoid excitation into higher motional states of the lattice as a result of motional wavefunction mismatch 18 . We typically set the lattice depth to a value of 20 E R for atoms, corresponding to 80Ẽ R for Feshbach molecules with twice the polarizability and double the mass and 83Ẽ R for molecules in |v = 0 at a lattice wavelength of 1,064.5 nm, as determined below.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

An ultracold high-density sample of rovibronic ground-state molecules in an optical lattice

et al. 2010

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Control over all internal and external degrees of freedom of molecules at the level of single quantum states will enable a series of fundamental studies in physics and chemistry 1,2 . In particular, samples of ground-state molecules at ultralow temperatures and high number densities will facilitate new quantum-gas studies 3 and future applications in quantum information science 4 . However, high phase-space densities for molecular samples are not readily attainable because efficient cooling techniques such as laser cooling are lacking. Here we produce an ultracold and dense sample of molecules in a single hyperfine level of the rovibronic ground state with each molecule individually trapped in the motional ground state of an optical lattice well. Starting from a zero-temperature atomic Mott-insulator state 5 with optimized double-site occupancy 6 , weakly bound dimer molecules are efficiently associated on a Feshbach resonance 7 and subsequently transferred to the rovibronic ground state by a stimulated four-photon process with >50% efficiency. The molecules are trapped in the lattice and have a lifetime of 8 s. Our results present a crucial step towards Bose-Einstein condensation of groundstate molecules and, when suitably generalized to polar heteronuclear molecules, the realization of dipolar quantumgas phases in optical lattices [8][9][10] .Recent years have seen spectacular advances in the field of atomic quantum gases. Ultracold atomic samples have been loaded into optical lattice potentials, enabling the realization of strongly correlated many-body systems and the direct observation of quantum phase transitions with full control over the entire parameter space 5 . Molecules with their higher level of complexity are expected to have a crucial role in future-generation quantumgas studies. For example, the long-range dipole-dipole force between polar molecules gives rise to nearest-neighbour and next-nearest-neighbour interaction terms in the extended BoseHubbard Hamiltonian and should thus lead to unusual many-body states in optical lattices in the form of striped, checkerboard and supersolid phases [8][9][10] .An important prerequisite for all proposed molecular quantumgas experiments is the capability to fully control all internal and external quantum degrees of freedom of the molecules. For radiative and collisional stability, the molecules need to be prepared in their rovibronic ground state, that is, the lowest vibrational and rotational level of the lowest electronic state, and preferably in its energetically lowest hyperfine sublevel. As a starting point for the realization of new quantum phases, the molecular ensemble should be in the ground state of the many-body system. Such state control is possible only at ultralow temperatures and sufficiently high particle densities. Although versatile non-optical cooling and slowing techniques have recently been developed for molecular ensembles 11 and photo-association experiments with atoms in magneto-optical traps have reached the rovibrational ground sta...

show abstract

mentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

An ultracold high-density sample of rovibronic ground-state molecules in an optical lattice

et al. 2010

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Then, these weakly bound molecules are transferred coherently to the rovibrational ground state via STImulated Raman Adiabatic Passage (STIRAP) [47]. Homonuclear Rb 2 molecules in the ground state of a triplet electronic potential were created using the same protocol [48]. In certain molecules, such as Sr 2 , very favorable Franck-Condon factors allow for efficient photoassociation into a deeply-bound state [49,50] or for direct STIRAP from two atoms on individual sites of a 3D lattice [51].…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

New frontiers for quantum gases of polar molecules

et al. 2016

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The field of ultracold quantum matter has burgeoned over the last few decades, thanks to the growing capabilities for atomic systems to be probed and manipulated with exquisite control. Researchers can now precisely create and study quantum manybody states that are effectively isolated from the external environment. Much of the work in ultracold matter has focused on systems of alkali or alkaline-earth atoms, mainly due to their ease of cooling. Extending this precise control to molecules has seen rapidly increasing interest and activity, as molecules possess additional degrees of freedom that make them useful for tests of fundamental physics, studying ultracold chemistry and collisions, and engineering qualitatively new types of quantum phases and quantum many-body systems. Here, we review one particularly fruitful research direction: the creation and manipulation of ultracold bialkali molecules. The recent success in creating a quantum gas of polar molecules opens many exciting research opportunities. Atomic, Molecular, and Optical (AMO) systems offer experimentalists the ability to precisely control interactions in a quantum many-body system [1,2], and a rich set of experiments has already been performed. Some prominent examples include studies of the BEC-BCS crossover in two-component Fermi gases [3,4,5] and the superfluid-Mott insulator transition in ultracold bosons loaded into a 3D optical lattice [6]. Neutral atomic systems normally have point-like contact interactions that can be parametrized with a single quantity, the scattering length a, which can be tuned via a Feshbach resonance [2]. In recent years, systems with long-range and anisotropic interactions have garnered much attention. One natural example is the dipolar interaction between polar molecules, which is the focus of this Review. Of course, many other experimental platforms are also being pursued that feature long-range interactions, including highly magnetic atoms [7,8], trapped ions The dipolar interaction exhibits several important attributes. First, the energy scales in dipolar systems are usually much larger than those in typical atomic alkali systems, making it easier to study interaction-driven structural properties and non-equilibrium dynamics. Second, and perhaps more importantly, the anisotropic and long-range nature of the interaction allows for the realization of novel quantum phases, especially when the spatial dimensions of the system can be varied with optical lattices. Some of these engineered systems may find relevance to outstanding problems in condensed-matter physics [13,14]; moreover, qualitatively new types of physics can emerge in the presence of long-range interactions [15,16,17,18,19,20,21]. As a specific example of a unique feature of long-range interactions, a spin-1/2 Hamiltonian can be encoded based on a pair of oppositeparity rotational states where dipolar interactions give rise to a direct spin exchange coupling between molecules [22,23]. With this scheme implemented in an optical lattice, many-body spin dynam...

show abstract

“…A highly promising direction in cold atoms phyiscs is the experimental realization and exploration of homoand heteronuclear molecules at low temperatures [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9]. The potential applications of such systems are wideranging within quantum simulation, information, computation, and metrology [10][11][12][13].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Formation of classical crystals of dipolar particles in a helical geometry

Pedersen¹,

Fedorov²,

Jensen³

et al. 2014

J. Phys. B: At. Mol. Opt. Phys.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

We consider crystal formation of particles with dipole-dipole interactions that are confined to move in a one-dimensional helical geometry with their dipole moments oriented along the symmetry axis of the confining helix. The stable classical lowest energy configurations are found to be chain structures for a large range of pitch-to-radius ratios for relatively low density of dipoles and a moderate total number of particles. The classical normal mode spectra support the chain interpretation both through structure and the distinct degeneracies depending discretely on the number of dipoles per revolution. A larger total number of dipoles leads to a clusterization where the dipolar chains move closer to each other. This implies a change in the local density and the emergence of two length scales, one for the cluster size and one for the inter-cluster distance along the helix. Starting from three dipoles per revolution, this implies a breaking of the initial periodicity to form a cluster of two chains close together and a third chain removed from the cluster. This is driven by the competition between in-chain and out-of-chain interactions, or alternatively the side-by-side repulsion and the head-totail attraction in the system. The speed of sound propagates along the chains. It is independent of the number of chains although depending on geometry.

show abstract

Ultracold Triplet Molecules in the Rovibrational Ground State

Cited by 383 publications

References 36 publications

An ultracold high-density sample of rovibronic ground-state molecules in an optical lattice

An ultracold high-density sample of rovibronic ground-state molecules in an optical lattice

New frontiers for quantum gases of polar molecules

Formation of classical crystals of dipolar particles in a helical geometry

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About