Conversion of $^{40}$K-$^{87}$Rb mixtures into stable molecules

Abstract

We study the conversion of $^{40}$K and $^{87}$Rb atoms into stable molecules through the stimulated Raman adiabatic passage (STIRAP) in photoassociation assisted with Feshbach resonance. Starting with the mean-field Langrange density, we show that the atom-to-molecule conversion efficiency by STIRAP aided by Feshbach resonance is much larger than that by bare Feshbach resonance. We also study the influence of the population imbalance on the atom-to-molecule conversion.Comment: Revtex, 5 pages, 3 figures; version to appear in PRA (some content changed