60 research outputs found
Formation of ultracold dipolar molecules in the lowest vibrational levels by photoassociation
We recently reported the formation of ultracold LiCs molecules in the
rovibrational ground state X1Sigma+,v''=0,J''=0 [J. Deiglmayr et al., PRL 101,
133004 (2008)]. Here we discuss details of the experimental setup and present a
thorough analysis of the photoassociation step including the photoassociation
line shape. We predict the distribution of produced ground state molecules
using accurate potential nergy curves combined with an ab-initio dipole
transition moment and compare this prediction with experimental ionization
spectra. Additionally we improve the value of the dissociation energy for the
X1Sigma+ state by high resolution spectroscopy of the vibrational ground state.Comment: Submitted to Faraday Discussions 142: Cold and Ultracold Molecules 18
pages, 8 figure
Efficient production of polar molecular Bose-Einstein condensates via an all-optical R-type atom-molecule adiabatic passage
We propose a scheme of "-type" photoassociative adiabatic passage (PAP) to
create polar molecular condensates from two different species of ultracold
atoms. Due to the presence of a quasi-coherent population trapping state in the
scheme, it is possible to associate atoms into molecules with a
\textit{low-power} photoassociation (PA) laser. One remarkable advantage of our
scheme is that a tunable atom-molecule coupling strength can be achieved by
using a time-dependent PA field, which exhibits larger flexibility than using a
tunable magnetic field. In addition, our results show that the PA intensity
required in the "-type" PAP could be greatly reduced compared to that in a
conventional "-type" one.Comment: 17 pages, 5 figures, to appear in New Journal of Physic
Ultracold Molecules in the Ro-Vibrational Triplet Ground State
We report here on the production of an ultracold gas of tightly bound Rb2
molecules in the ro-vibrational triplet ground state, close to quantum
degeneracy. This is achieved by optically transferring weakly bound Rb2
molecules to the absolute lowest level of the ground triplet potential with a
transfer efficiency of about 90%. The transfer takes place in a 3D optical
lattice which traps a sizeable fraction of the tightly bound molecules with a
lifetime exceeding 200 ms.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures. Phys. Rev. Lett. accepte
Optimal trapping wavelengths of Cs molecules in an optical lattice
The present paper aims at finding optimal parameters for trapping of Cs
molecules in optical lattices, with the perspective of creating a quantum
degenerate gas of ground-state molecules. We have calculated dynamic
polarizabilities of Cs molecules subject to an oscillating electric field,
using accurate potential curves and electronic transition dipole moments. We
show that for some particular wavelengths of the optical lattice, called "magic
wavelengths", the polarizability of the ground-state molecules is equal to the
one of a Feshbach molecule. As the creation of the sample of ground-state
molecules relies on an adiabatic population transfer from weakly-bound
molecules created on a Feshbach resonance, such a coincidence ensures that both
the initial and final states are favorably trapped by the lattice light,
allowing optimized transfer in agreement with the experimental observation
Ultracold polar molecules near quantum degeneracy
We report the creation and characterization of a near quantum-degenerate gas
of polar K-Rb molecules in their absolute rovibrational ground
state. Starting from weakly bound heteronuclear KRb Feshbach molecules, we
implement precise control of the molecular electronic, vibrational, and
rotational degrees of freedom with phase-coherent laser fields. In particular,
we coherently transfer these weakly bound molecules across a 125 THz frequency
gap in a single step into the absolute rovibrational ground state of the
electronic ground potential. Phase coherence between lasers involved in the
transfer process is ensured by referencing the lasers to two single components
of a phase-stabilized optical frequency comb. Using these methods, we prepare a
dense gas of polar molecules at a temperature below 400 nK. This
fermionic molecular ensemble is close to quantum degeneracy and can be
characterized by a degeneracy parameter of . We have measured the
molecular polarizability in an optical dipole trap where the trap lifetime
gives clues to interesting ultracold chemical processes. Given the large
measured dipole moment of the KRb molecules of 0.5 Debye, the study of quantum
degenerate molecular gases interacting via strong dipolar interactions is now
within experimental reach
Resonant Coupling in the Heteronuclear Alkali Dimers for Direct Photoassociative Formation of X(0,0) Ultracold Molecules
Promising pathways for photoassociative formation of ultracold heteronuclear
alkali metal dimers in their lowest rovibronic levels (denoted X(0,0)) are
examined using high quality ab initio calculations of potential energy curves
currently available. A promising pathway for KRb, involving the resonant
coupling of the and states just below the lowest excited
asymptote (K()+Rb()), is found to occur also for RbCs and less
promisingly for KCs as well. The resonant coupling of the and
states, also just below the lowest excited asymptote, is found to be
promising for LiNa, LiK, LiRb, and less promising for LiCs and KCs. Direct
photoassociation to the state near dissociation appears promising in
the final dimers, NaK, NaRb, and NaCs, although detuning more than 100
cm below the lowest excited asymptote may be required.Comment: 20 pages, 12 figures, Submitted to Journal of Physical Chemistry
Formation of ultracold RbCs molecules by photoassociation
The formation of ultracold metastable RbCs molecules is observed in a double
species magneto-optical trap through photoassociation below the
^85Rb(5S_1/2)+^133Cs(6P_3/2) dissociation limit followed by spontaneous
emission. The molecules are detected by resonance enhanced two-photon
ionization. Using accurate quantum chemistry calculations of the potential
energy curves and transition dipole moment, we interpret the observed
photoassociation process as occurring at short internuclear distance, in
contrast with most previous cold atom photoassociation studies. The vibrational
levels excited by photoassociation belong to the 5th 0^+ or the 4th 0^-
electronic states correlated to the Rb(5P_1/2,3/2)+Cs(6S_1/2) dissociation
limit. The computed vibrational distribution of the produced molecules shows
that they are stabilized in deeply bound vibrational states of the lowest
triplet state. We also predict that a noticeable fraction of molecules is
produced in the lowest level of the electronic ground state
Dark resonances for ground state transfer of molecular quantum gases
One possible way to produce ultracold, high-phase-space-density quantum gases
of molecules in the rovibronic ground state is given by molecule association
from quantum-degenerate atomic gases on a Feshbach resonance and subsequent
coherent optical multi-photon transfer into the rovibronic ground state. In
ultracold samples of Cs_2 molecules, we observe two-photon dark resonances that
connect the intermediate rovibrational level |v=73,J=2> with the rovibrational
ground state |v=0,J=0> of the singlet ground state potential.
For precise dark resonance spectroscopy we exploit the fact that it is possible
to efficiently populate the level |v=73,J=2> by two-photon transfer from the
dissociation threshold with the stimulated Raman adiabatic passage (STIRAP)
technique. We find that at least one of the two-photon resonances is
sufficiently strong to allow future implementation of coherent STIRAP transfer
of a molecular quantum gas to the rovibrational ground state |v=0,J=0>.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figure
Bound Chains of Tilted Dipoles in Layered Systems
Ultracold polar molecules in multilayered systems have been experimentally
realized very recently. While experiments study these systems almost
exclusively through their chemical reactivity, the outlook for creating and
manipulating exotic few- and many-body physics in dipolar systems is
fascinating. Here we concentrate on few-body states in a multilayered setup. We
exploit the geometry of the interlayer potential to calculate the two- and
three-body chains with one molecule in each layer. The focus is on dipoles that
are aligned at some angle with respect to the layer planes by means of an
external eletric field. The binding energy and the spatial structure of the
bound states are studied in several different ways using analytical approaches.
The results are compared to stochastic variational calculations and very good
agreement is found. We conclude that approximations based on harmonic
oscillator potentials are accurate even for tilted dipoles when the geometry of
the potential landscape is taken into account.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures. Submitted to Few-body Systems special issue on
Critical Stability, revised versio
Observation of coherent many-body Rabi oscillations
A two-level quantum system coherently driven by a resonant electromagnetic
field oscillates sinusoidally between the two levels at frequency
which is proportional to the field amplitude [1]. This phenomenon, known as the
Rabi oscillation, has been at the heart of atomic, molecular and optical
physics since the seminal work of its namesake and coauthors [2]. Notably, Rabi
oscillations in isolated single atoms or dilute gases form the basis for
metrological applications such as atomic clocks and precision measurements of
physical constants [3]. Both inhomogeneous distribution of coupling strength to
the field and interactions between individual atoms reduce the visibility of
the oscillation and may even suppress it completely. A remarkable
transformation takes place in the limit where only a single excitation can be
present in the sample due to either initial conditions or atomic interactions:
there arises a collective, many-body Rabi oscillation at a frequency
involving all N >> 1 atoms in the sample [4]. This is true even
for inhomogeneous atom-field coupling distributions, where single-atom Rabi
oscillations may be invisible. When one of the two levels is a strongly
interacting Rydberg level, many-body Rabi oscillations emerge as a consequence
of the Rydberg excitation blockade. Lukin and coauthors outlined an approach to
quantum information processing based on this effect [5]. Here we report initial
observations of coherent many-body Rabi oscillations between the ground level
and a Rydberg level using several hundred cold rubidium atoms. The strongly
pronounced oscillations indicate a nearly complete excitation blockade of the
entire mesoscopic ensemble by a single excited atom. The results pave the way
towards quantum computation and simulation using ensembles of atoms
- …