2005/11/30 by Christiane P. Koch, Ronnie Kosloff, F. Masnou-Seeuws +1 · 3 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Cold Atom Physics and Bose-Einstein Condensates #Quantum optics and atomic interactions #Quantum, superfluid, helium dynamics #physics.atom-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physreva.73.043409
published as Phys. Rev. A 73, 043409 (2006)
arxiv created 2006/01/28 · openalex publication_date 2006/04/13 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
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+5P1∕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∕R3 potentials allow for efficient photoassociation, stabilization is facilitated by the resonant spin-orbit coupling of the 0u+ states. Molecules in the singlet ground state bound by a few wave numbers 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.