Molecule formation in ultracold atomic gases

Abstract

This review describes recent experimental and theoretical advances in forming molecules in ultracold gases of trapped alkali metal atoms, both by magnetic tuning through Feshbach resonances and by photoassociation. Molecular Bose-Einstein condensation of long-range states of both boson dimers and fermion dimers was achieved in 2002-3. Condensates of boson dimers were found to be short-lived, but long-lived condensates of fermion dimers have been produced. Signatures of triatomic and tetraatomic molecules have recently been observed. Both homonuclear and heteronuclear molecules have been formed by photoassociation, mostly in very high vibrational levels. Recent attempts to produce ultracold molecules in short-range states (low vibrational levels) are described. Experimental and theoretical work on collisions of ultracold molecules is discussed.

To be published in International reviews in Physical Chemistry, Vol. 25, issue 4 (October 2006)

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Cited by in corpus (61)

• Feshbach Resonances in Ultracold Gases
• Ultracold Molecules in the Ro-Vibrational Triplet Ground State
• Formation and interactions of cold and ultracold molecules: new challenges for interdisciplinary physics
• The hyperfine energy levels of alkali metal dimers: ground-state polar molecules in electric and magnetic fields
• Feshbach resonances in ultracold atomic and molecular collisions: threshold behaviour and suppression of poles in scattering lengths
• Ultracold bosons with short-range interaction in regular optical lattices
• Strongly interacting ultracold polar molecules
• Observation of Feshbach resonances between alkali and closed-shell atoms
• Production of ultracold NH molecules by sympathetic cooling with Mg
• Molecular collisions in ultracold atomic gases
• Universal ultracold collision rates for polar molecules of two alkali-metal atoms
• Ultracold atom-molecule collisions and bound states in magnetic fields: tuning zero-energy Feshbach resonances in He-NH (3Sigma-)
• A number-conserving approach to a minimal self-consistent treatment of condensate and non-condensate dynamics in a degenerate Bose gas
• Interactions and dynamics in Li + Li_2 ultracold collisions
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• Quantum calculations of H2-H2 collisions: from ultracold to thermal energies
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• Van der Waals coefficients for systems with ultracold polar alkali-metal molecules
• Ultracold molecules from ultracold atoms: a case study with the KRb molecule
• Cold collisions of OH and Rb. I: the free collision
• Multichannel Quantum Defect Theory for cold molecular collisions
• Manipulating ultracold polar molecules with microwave radiation: the influence of hyperfine structure
• The prospects of sympathetic cooling of NH molecules with Li atoms
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• The prospects for producing ultracold NH${}_3$ molecules by sympathetic cooling: a survey of interaction potentials
• Improved setup for producing slow beams of cold molecules using a rotating nozzle
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• Stimulating the production of deeply bound RbCs molecules with laser pulses: the role of spin-orbit coupling in forming ultracold molecules
• Dramatic reductions in inelastic cross sections for ultracold collisions near Feshbach resonances
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• The effect of hyperfine interactions on ultracold molecular collisions: NH(^3Sigma^-) with Mg(^1S) in magnetic fields
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• Rapid Accurate Calculation of the s-Wave Scattering Length
• Molecular Collisions: from Near-cold to Ultra-cold
• Magnetically tunable Feshbach resonances in Li + Yb(${}^3{P}_J$)
• Magnetic Feshbach resonances in ultracold collisions between Cs and Yb atoms
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• Ultracold hydrogen atoms: a versatile coolant to produce ultracold molecules
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• Shape resonances in H${}_2$ as photolysis reaction intermediates
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• Rotational predissociation of extremely weakly bound atom-molecule complexes produced by Feshbach resonance association
• Analytical solutions of the Schrödinger equation for two confined atoms with van der Waals interaction
• Resonances at very low temperature for the reaction D${}_2$+H
• Doppler cooling of gallium atoms: 2. Simulation in complex multilevel systems
• Repeated output coupling of ultracold Feshbach molecules from a Cs BEC