Photodissociation of trapped Rb${}_2^{+}$ : Implications for simultaneous trapping of atoms and molecular ions

Abstract

The direct photodissociation of trapped ${}^{85}$Rb${}_2^{+}$ (rubidium) molecular ions by the cooling light for the ${}^{85}$Rb magneto-optical trap (MOT) is studied, both experimentally and theoretically. Vibrationally excited Rb${}_2^{+}$ ions are created by photoionization of Rb${}_2$ molecules formed photoassociatively in the Rb MOT and are trapped in a modified spherical Paul trap. The decay rate of the trapped Rb${}_2^{+}$ ion signal in the presence of the MOT cooling light is measured and agreement with our calculated rates for molecular ion photodissociation is observed. The photodissociation mechanism due to the MOT light is expected to be active and therefore universal for all homonuclear diatomic alkali metal molecular ions.

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• Observation of Chemical Reactions between a Trapped Ion and Ultracold Feshbach Dimers
• Cold chemistry: a few-body perspective on impurity physics of a single ion in an ultracold bath
• Three-body recombination in physical chemistry
• Ab initio electronic structure and prospects for the formation of ultracold calcium--alkali-metal-atom molecular ions
• Observation of trap-assisted formation of atom-ion bound states
• Spin-conservation propensity rule for three-body recombination of ultracold Rb atoms
• Photon-mediated charge-exchange reactions between 39K atoms and 40Ca+ ions in a hybrid trap
• Ion loss events in a cold Rb-Ca${}^{+}$ hybrid trap: photodissociation, black-body radiation and non-radiative charge exchange
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• Fast in situ observation of atomic Feshbach resonances by photoassociative ionization
• Vibrational quenching of cold molecular ions immersed in their parent gas
• Ab initio electronic structure of the Sr${}_2^{+}$ molecular ion
• Electric field dissociation of weakly bound molecular ions