We have produced large samples of ultracold $^{88}$Sr$_2$ molecules in the electronic ground state in an optical lattice. The molecules are bound by 0.05 cm$^{-1}$ and are stable for several milliseconds. The fast, all-optical method of molecule crea
tion via intercombination line photoassociation relies on a near-unity Franck-Condon factor. The detection uses a weakly bound vibrational level corresponding to a very large dimer. This is the first of two steps needed to create Sr$_2$ in the absolute ground quantum state. Lattice-trapped Sr$_2$ is of interest to frequency metrology and ultracold chemistry.
We report on the implementation of a dynamically configurable, servomotor- controlled, permanent magnet Zeeman slower for quantum optics experiments with ultracold atoms and molecules. This atom slower allows for switching between magnetic field prof
iles that are designed for different atomic species. Additionally, through feedback on the atom trapping rate, we demonstrate that computer-controlled genetic optimization algorithms applied to the magnet positions can be used in situ to obtain field profiles that maximize the trapping rate for any given experimental conditions. The device is lightweight, remotely controlled, and consumes no power in steady state; it is a step toward automated control of quantum optics experiments.
We report on a far above saturation absorption imaging technique to investigate the characteristics of dense packets of ultracold atoms. The transparency of the cloud is controlled by the incident light intensity as a result of the non-linear respons
e of the atoms to the probe beam. We detail our experimental procedure to calibrate the imaging system for reliable quantitative measurements, and demonstrate the use of this technique to extract the profile and its spatial extent of an optically thick atomic cloud.
