Darmstadt 2008 – wissenschaftliches Programm

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MO: Fachverband Molekülphysik

MO 11: Ultrakalte Moleküle (gemeinsam mit Q)

MO 11.1: Vortrag

Dienstag, 11. März 2008, 16:30–16:45, 3G

Photoassociation of ultracold molecules by shaped femtosecond laser pulses — •Wenzel Salzmann¹, Terry Mullins¹, Simone Götz¹, Roland Wester¹, Magnus Albert¹, Judith Eng¹, Matthias Weidemüller¹, Fabian Weise², Andrea Merli², Stefan Weber², Franziska Sauer², Mateusz Plewicki², Ludger Wöste², and Albrecht Lindinger² — ¹Physikalisches Institut, Universität Freiburg, Herrmann-Herder-Str.3, 79104 Freiburg — ²Institut für Physik, Freie Universität Berlin, Arnimallee 14

We present first experiments on the formation on photoassociation of ultracold molecules with shaped femtosecond laser pulses. In a pump-probe sequence of laser pulses, molecules are produced in their excited state from an ultracold gas of rubidium atoms and subsequently ionized. Molecular ions are mass selectively detected with single ion effciency. Pulse shaping techniques are used to restrict the pump pulse spectral intensity to address only bound molecular potentials of the first electronically excited state and to suppress atomic losses from the trap due to ionization [1]. The pump-probe detected molecular ion signal shows rich oscillatory dynamics, caused by coherent interactions of molecular electronic dipole with the electric field of the pump pulse [2]. Analysis of the data is accompanied by quantum dynamical simulations which give detailed insight into the pulsed photoassociation process. We further find indications for the formation of molecules in their electronic ground state by spontaneous decay.
W. Salzmann et al., PRA 73, 023414 (2006)
A. Monmayrant et al., PRL 96, 103002 (2006)