Light forces in ultracold photoassociation

Abstract

We study the time-resolved photoassociation of ultracold sodium in an optical dipole trap. The photoassociation laser excites pairs of atoms to molecular states of large total angular momentum at high intensities (above 20 kW/cm${}^2$). Such transitions are generally suppressed at ultracold temperatures by the centrifugal barriers for high partial waves. Time-resolved ionization measurements reveal that the atoms are accelerated by the dipole potential of the photoassociation beam. We change the collision energy by varying the potential depth, and observe a strong variation of the photoassociation rate. These results demonstrate the important role of light forces in cw photoassociation at high intensities.

7 pages, 3 figures

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• Photoassociation of sodium in a Bose-Einstein condensate
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• Quasi-condensate growth on an atom chip
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Cited by in corpus (4)

• Manipulating Higher Partial-Wave Atom-Atom Interaction by Strong Photoassoiative Coupling
• Creation and manipulation of bound states in continuum with lasers: Applications to cold atoms and molecules
• Photoassociation to the 2(1)Sigma(g)(+) state in ultracold 85Rb2 in the presence of a shape resonance
• Rotational excitations in two-color photoassociation