Precision molecular spectroscopy for ground state transfer of molecular quantum gases

Abstract

One possibility for the creation of ultracold, high-phase-space-density quantum gases of molecules in the rovibrational ground state relies on first associating weakly-bound molecules from quantum-degenerate atomic gases on a Feshbach resonance and then transfering the molecules via several steps of coherent two-photon stimulated Raman adiabatic passage (STIRAP) into the rovibronic ground state. Here, in ultracold samples of Cs_2 Feshbach molecules produced out of ultracold samples of Cs atoms, we observe several optical transitions to deeply bound rovibrational levels of the excited 0_u^+ molecular potentials with high resolution. At least one of these transitions, although rather weak, allows efficient STIRAP transfer into the deeply bound vibrational level |v=73> of the singlet X ^1Sigma_g^+ ground state potential, as recently demonstrated. From this level, the rovibrational ground state level |v=0, J=0> can be reached with one more transfer step. In total, our results show that coherent ground state transfer for Cs_2 is possible using a maximum of two successive two-photon processes or one single four-photon STIRAP process.

6 figures, 1 table

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Cited by in corpus (12)

• Quantum gas of rovibronic ground-state molecules in an optical lattice
• Controlling the hyperfine state of rovibronic ground-state polar molecules
• Electron EDM searches based on alkali or alkaline earth bearing molecules
• Global analysis of data on the spin-orbit coupled $A^1{\Sigma }_u^{+}$ and $b^3{\Pi }_u$ states of Cs2
• Influence of a Feshbach resonance on the photoassociation of LiCs
• Deeply bound ultracold molecules in an optical lattice
• Optimal trapping wavelengths of Cs${}_2$ molecules in an optical lattice
• Fourier transform spectroscopy, relativistic electronic structure calculation, and coupled-channel deperturbation analysis of the fully mixed $A^1{\Sigma }_u^{+}$ and $b^3{\Pi }_u$ states of Cs${}_2$
• Mixing of 0${}^{+}$ and 0${}^{-}$ observed in hyperfine and Zeeman structure of ultracold Rb${}_2$ molecules
• Fano effect in an ultracold atom-molecule coupled system
• External field control of spin-dependent rotational decoherence of ultracold polar molecules
• Ultracold and dense samples of ground-state molecules in lattice potentials