0 Coherent Laser Manipulation of Ultracold Molecules (original) (raw)
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Application of lasers to ultra-cold atoms and molecules
Comptes Rendus Physique, 2011
In this review, we discuss the impact of the development of lasers on ultracold atoms and molecules and their applications. After a brief historical review of laser cooling and Bose-Einstein condensation, we present important applications of ultra cold atoms, including time and frequency metrology, atom interferometry and inertial sensors, atom lasers, simulation of condensed matter systems, production and study of strongly correlated systems, and production of ultracold molecules.
Toward Ultracold Organic Chemistry: Prospects of Laser Cooling Large Organic Molecules
The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters, 2020
Ultracold organic chemistry enables studies of reaction dynamics and mechanisms in the quantum regime. Access to ultracold molecules hinges on the ability to efficiently scatter multiple photons via quasi-closed cycling transitions. Optical cycling in polyatomic molecules is challenging due to their complex electronic structure. Using equation-of-motion coupled-cluster calculations, we demonstrate that an alkaline earth metal attached to various aromatic ligands (such as benzene, phenol, cyclopentadienyl, and pyrrolide) offers nearly closed cycling transitions with only a few additional repump lasers. We also show that aromatic ligands such as benzene can accommodate multiple cycling centers in various geometrical arrangements, opening new avenues in quantum information science, precision measurements, and ultracold chemistry.
Ultracold polyatomic molecules for quantum science and precision measurements
2022
Polar molecules, due to their intrinsic electric dipole moment and their controllable complexity, are a powerful platform for precision measurement searches for physics beyond the Standard Model (BSM) and for quantum simulation/computation. This has led to many experimental efforts to cool and control molecules at the quantum level. Due to their qualitatively unique rotational and vibrational modes, polyatomic molecules (molecules containing three or more atoms) have attracted recent focus as quantum resources that have distinct advantages and challenges compared to both atoms and diatomic molecules. Here we discuss results on the laser cooling of polyatomic molecules into the ultracold regime and future prospects for the use of polyatomic molecules to greatly improve fundamental symmetry tests, searches for dark matter, and the search for CP-violating BSM physics.
Ultracold polar molecules near quantum degeneracy
Faraday Discussions, 2009
We report the creation and characterization of a near quantum-degenerate gas of polar 40 K-87 Rb molecules in their absolute rovibrational ground state. Starting from weakly bound heteronuclear KRb Feshbach molecules, we implement precise control of the molecular electronic, vibrational, and rotational degrees of freedom with phase-coherent laser fields. In particular, we coherently transfer these weakly bound molecules across a 125 THz frequency gap in a single step into the absolute rovibrational ground state of the electronic ground potential. Phase coherence between lasers involved in the transfer process is ensured by referencing the lasers to two single components of a phase-stabilized optical frequency comb. Using these methods, we prepare a dense gas of 4 · 10 4 polar molecules at a temperature below 400 nK. This fermionic molecular ensemble is close to quantum degeneracy and can be characterized by a degeneracy parameter of T /TF = 3. We have measured the molecular polarizability in an optical dipole trap where the trap lifetime gives clues to interesting ultracold chemical processes. Given the large measured dipole moment of the KRb molecules of 0.5 Debye, the study of quantum degenerate molecular gases interacting via strong dipolar interactions is now within experimental reach.
Formation of ultracold molecules via photoassociation with blue detuned laser light
The European Physical Journal D, 2001
We propose a new possibility to form ultracold molecules, via photoassociation of a pair of cold atoms into vibrational levels of the external well of an excited electronic state located at intermediate interatomic distance (≈ 20 Bohr radii), and embedded in the dissociation continuum above its dissociation limit. The existence of such a well is demonstrated by conventional free-free absorption spectroscopy at thermal energies. Estimation for cold atom photoassociation and cold molecule formation rates are obtained within a perturbative approach [Drag et al., IEEE J. Quant. Electr. 36, 1378], and are found observable for usual conditions of photoassociation experiments.
Optical Production of Ultracold Polar Molecules
Frontiers in Optics, 2005
We demonstrate the production of ultracold polar RbCs molecules in their vibronic ground state, via photoassociation of laser-cooled atoms followed by a laser-stimulated state transfer process. The resulting sample of X 1 Σ + (v = 0) molecules has a translational temperature of ∼ 100 µK and a narrow distribution of rotational states. With the method described here it should be possible to produce samples even colder in all degrees of freedom, as well as other bi-alkali species.
Ultracold-molecule production by laser-cooled atom photoassociation
Physical Review A, 1995
We propose a method for copiously producing ultracold ground electronic-state molecules by two-photon absorption to a Rydberg molecular level (that spontaneously radiates to the ground molecular state) during collisions of ultracold atoms in a laser trap. Using the Na2 molecule as an example, the sequential two-photon absorption is via an intermediate high-lying vibrational level of the excited lg state and results in the formation of a given vibrational level of a II"Rydberg molecular state. Realistic calculations demonstrating the validity of the method are presented.
Quantum optics of ultra-cold molecules
2005
Quantum optics has been a major driving force behind the rapid experimental developments that have led from the first laser cooling schemes to the Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) of dilute atomic and molecular gases. Not only has it provided experimentalists with the necessary tools to create ultra-cold atomic systems, but it has also provided theorists with a formalism and framework to describe them: many effects now being studied in quantum-degenerate atomic and molecular systems find a very natural explanation in a quantum optics picture. This article briefly reviews three such examples that find their direct inspiration in the trailblazing work carried out over the years by Herbert Walther, one of the true giants of that field. Specifically, we use an analogy with the micromaser to analyze ultra-cold molecules in a double-well potential; study the formation and dissociation dynamics of molecules using the passage time statistics familiar from superradiance and superfluorescence studies; and show how molecules can be used to probe higher-order correlations in ultra-cold atomic gases, in particular bunching and antibunching.
Physical Review A, 2014
We report the production of ultracold heteronuclear 7 Li 85 Rb molecules in excited electronic states by photoassociation (PA) of ultracold 7 Li and 85 Rb atoms. PA is performed in a dual-species 7 Li-85 Rb magnetooptical trap (MOT) and the PA resonances are detected using trap loss spectroscopy. We identify several strong PA resonances below the Li (2s 2 S 1/2 ) + Rb (5p 2 P 3/2 ) asymptote and experimentally determine the long range C 6 dispersion coefficients. We find a molecule formation rate (P LiRb ) of 3.5×10 7 s -1 and a PA rate coefficient (K PA ) of 1.3×10 -10 cm 3 /s, the highest among heteronuclear bi-alkali molecules. At large PA laser intensity, we observe the saturation of the PA rate coefficient (K PA ) close to the theoretical value at the unitarity limit. DOI: PACS number(s): 34.50.-s, 37.10.Mn, 33.20.-t Heteronuclear polar molecules have recently attracted enormous attention [1-17] owing to their ground state having a large electric dipole moment [16]. The long range anisotropic dipole-dipole interaction in such systems is the basis for a variety of applications including quantum computing [13], precision measurements [14], ultracold chemistry [2] and quantum simulations [15]. Heteronuclear bi-alkali molecules (XY, where X and Y are two different alkali atom species)