Photoassociation inside an optical dipole trap: absolute rate coefficients and Franck-Condon factors

Abstract

We present quantitative measurements of the photoassociation of cesium molecules inside a far-detuned optical dipole trap. A model of the trap depletion dynamics is derived which allows to extract absolute photoassociation rate coefficients for the initial single-photon photoassociation step from measured trap-loss spectra. The sensitivity of this approach is demonstrated by measuring the Franck-Condon modulation of the weak photoassociation transitions into the low vibrational levels of the outer well of the 0g- state that correlates to the 6s+6p3/2 asymptote. The measurements are compared to theoretical predictions. In a magneto-optical trap these transitions have previously only been observed indirectly through ionization of ground state molecules.

References in corpus (4)

• Observation of Bose-Einstein Condensation of Molecules
• Superchemistry: dynamics of coupled atomic and molecular Bose-Einstein condensates
• Mixture of ultracold lithium and cesium atoms in an optical dipole trap
• Very long storage times and evaporative cooling of cesium atoms in a quasi-electrostatic dipole trap

Cited by in corpus (9)

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• Light scattering and localization in an ultracold and dense atomic system
• Pseudogaps in strongly interacting Fermi gases
• Influence of a Feshbach resonance on the photoassociation of LiCs
• Saturation of Cs2 Photoassociation in an Optical Dipole Trap
• Pair Correlations and Photoassociation Dynamics of Two Atoms in an Optical Tweezer
• Detecting high density ultracold molecules using atom-molecule collision