No Arabic abstract
We have studied the effect of resonant electronic state coupling on the formation of ultracold ground-state $^{85}$Rb$_2$. Ultracold Rb$_2$ molecules are formed by photoassociation (PA) to a coupled pair of $0_u^+$ states, $0_u^+(P_{1/2})$ and $0_u^+(P_{3/2})$, in the region below the $5S+5P_{1/2}$ limit. Subsequent radiative decay produces high vibrational levels of the ground state, $X ^1Sigma_g^+$. The population distribution of these $X$ state vibrational levels is monitored by resonance-enhanced two-photon ionization through the $2 ^1Sigma_u^+$ state. We find that the populations of vibrational levels $v$=112$-$116 are far larger than can be accounted for by the Franck-Condon factors for $0_u^+(P_{1/2}) to X ^1Sigma_g^+$ transitions with the $0_u^+(P_{1/2})$ state treated as a single channel. Further, the ground-state molecule population exhibits oscillatory behavior as the PA laser is tuned through a succession of $0_u^+$ state vibrational levels. Both of these effects are explained by a new calculation of transition amplitudes that includes the resonant character of the spin-orbit coupling of the two $0_u^+$ states. The resulting enhancement of more deeply bound ground-state molecule formation will be useful for future experiments on ultracold molecules.
We report the observation of interspecies Feshbach resonances in an optically trapped mixture of $^{85}$Rb and $^{133}$Cs. We measure 14 interspecies features in the lowest spin channels for a magnetic field range from 0 to 700 G and show that they are in good agreement with coupled-channel calculations. The interspecies background scattering length is close to zero over a large range of magnetic fields, permitting the sensitive detection of Feshbach resonances through interspecies thermalisation. Our results confirm the quality of the Rb-Cs potential curves and offer promising starting points for the production of ultracold polar molecules.
We present the first observation of ultracold LiCs molecules. The molecules are formed in a two-species magneto-optical trap and detected by two-photon ionization and time-of-flight mass spectrometry. The production rate coefficient is found to be in the range $10^{-18}unit{cm^3s^{-1}}$ to $10^{-16}unit{cm^3s^{-1}}$, at least an order of magnitude smaller than for other heteronuclear diatomic molecules directly formed in a magneto-optical trap.
We report the measurement of the anisotropic AC polarizability of ultracold polar $^{40}$K$^{87}$Rb molecules in the ground and first rotationally excited states. Theoretical analysis of the polarizability agrees well with experimental findings. Although the polarizability can vary by more than 30%, a magic angle between the laser polarization and the quantization axis is found where the polarizability of the $|N=0,m_N=0>$ and the $|N=1,m_N=0>$ states match. At this angle, rotational decoherence due to the mismatch in trapping potentials is eliminated, and we observe a sharp increase in the coherence time. This paves the way for precise spectroscopic measurements and coherent manipulations of rotational states as a tool in the creation and probing of novel quantum many-body states of polar molecules.
We have studied hetero- and homonuclear excited state/ground state collisions by loading both $^{85}$Rb and $^{87}$Rb into a far off resonant trap (FORT). Because of the relatively weak confinement of the FORT, we expect the hyperfine structure of the different isotopes to play a crucial role in the collision rates. This dependence on hyperfine structure allows us to measure collisions associated with long range interatomic potentials of different structure: such as long and short ranged; or such as purely attractive, purely repulsive, or mixed attractive and repulsive. We observe significantly different loss rates for different excited state potentials. Additionally, we observe that some collisional channels loss rates are saturated at our operating intensities (~15 mW/cm$^{2}$). These losses are important limitations in loading dual isotope optical traps.
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.