Giant formation rates of ultracold molecules via Feshbach Optimized Photoassociation

Ultracold molecules offer a broad variety of applications, ranging from metrology to quantum computing. However, forming "real" ultracold molecules, {\it i.e.} in deeply bound levels, is a very difficult proposition. Here, we show how photoassociation in the vicinity of a Feshbach resonance enhance molecular formation rates by several orders of magnitude. We illustrate this effect in heteronuclear systems, and find giant rate coefficients even in deeply bound levels. We also give a simple analytical expression for the photoassociation rates, and discuss future applications of the Feshbach Optimized Photoassociation, or FOPA, technique

Feshbach-optimized photoassociation of ultracold 6^6Li87^{87}Rb molecules with short pulses

Two-color photoassociation of ground state $^6$Li$^{87}$Rb molecules via the $\mathrm{B}^1\Pi$ electronic state using short pulses near a magnetic Feshbach resonance is studied theoretically. A near-resonant magnetic field is applied to mix the hyperfine singlet and triplet components of the initial wave function and enhance the photoassociation rate, before the population is transferred to the ground state by a second pulse. We show that an increase of up to three orders of magnitude in the absolute number of molecules produced is attainable for deeply bound vibrational levels. This technique can be generalized to other molecules with accessible magnetic Feshbach resonances.Comment: 11 pages, 10 figures; submitted to Phys. Rev.

Phase gate and readout with an atom/molecule hybrid platform

We suggest a combined atomic/molecular system for quantum computation, which takes advantage of highly developed techniques to control atoms and recent experimental progress in manipulation of ultracold molecules. We show that two atoms of different species in a given site, {\it e.g.}, in an optical lattice, could be used for qubit encoding, initialization and readout, with one atom carrying the qubit, the other enabling a gate. In particular, we describe how a two-qubit phase gate can be realized by transferring a pair of atoms into the ground rovibrational state of a polar molecule with a large dipole moment, and allowing two molecules to interact via their dipole-dipole interaction. We also discuss how the reverse process of coherently transferring a molecule into a pair of atoms could be used as a readout tool for molecular quantum computers