Efficient Formation of Ultracold Molecules with Chirped Nanosecond Pulses

Abstract

We describe experiments and associated quantum simulations involving the production of ultracold ${}^{87}$Rb${}_2$ molecules with nanosecond pulses of frequency-chirped light. With appropriate chirp parameters, the formation is dominated by coherent processes. For a positive chirp, excited molecules are produced by photoassociation early in the chirp, then transferred into high vibrational levels of the lowest triplet state by stimulated emission later in the chirp. Generally good agreement is seen between the data and the simulations. Shaping of the chirp can lead to a significant enhancement of the formation rate. Further improvements using higher intensities and different intermediate states are predicted.

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Cited by in corpus (6)

• Observation of Quantum Interference and Coherent Control in a Photochemical Reaction
• Directional Quantum-Controlled Chemistry: Generating Aligned Ultracold Molecules via Photoassociation
• Short-range photoassociation from the inner wall of the lowest triplet potential of ${}^{85}$Rb${}_2$
• Formation of deeply bound polar molecules combining pump-dump pulses with infrared radiation
• Optimization of the Femtosecond Laser Impulse for Excitation and the Spin-Orbit Mediated Dissociation in the NaRb Dimer
• Weak-Field Coherent Control of Ultrafast Molecule Making