2011/04/15 by Scott T. Sullivan, Wade G. Rellergert, Svetlana Kotochigova +3 · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #physics.atom-ph #physics.chem-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1039/c1cp21205b
arxiv created 2011/04/15 · arxiv updated 2017/09/13
The formation of 40Ca2+ molecular ions is observed in a hybrid 40Ca magneto-optical and ion trap system. The molecular ion formation process is determined to be two-photon photo-associative ionization of ultracold 40Ca atoms. A lower bound for the two-body, two-photon rate constant is found to be β ≥ 2 ± 1 × 10-15 cm3 Hz. Ab initio molecular potential curves are calculated for the neutral Ca2 and ionic Ca2+ molecules and used in a model that identifies the photo-associative ionization pathway. As this technique does not require a separate photo-association laser, it could find use as a simple, robust method for producing ultracold, state-selected molecular ions.