Unitary photoassociation: One-step production of ground-state bound molecules

S. Kallush and R. Kosloff
Phys. Rev. A 77, 023421 – Published 29 February 2008

Abstract

Bound-state molecules can be photoassociated directly from ultracold free-atom pairs by excitation to a purely repulsive electronic state. The process is explained on the basis of quantum unitarity: the initially free-scattering state is transformed by an impulsive light pulse to a deformed superposition which contains bound-state components. For pulse durations which are short compared to the ultracold dynamics, the maximal rate of photoassociation was found to be determined by the initial stationary distribution of scattering states of the atom pairs. The process was simulated for an ultracold gas of R87b with a temperature of T=44μK and a density of 1011cm3. Transform-limited pulses maximize the photoassociation, yielding 1 bound molecule per pulse. Coherent control calculated by a local control scheme can increase the photoassociation yield by two orders of magnitude.

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  • Received 6 December 2007

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.77.023421

©2008 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

S. Kallush and R. Kosloff

  • The Fritz Haber Research Center, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem 91904, Israel

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Issue

Vol. 77, Iss. 2 — February 2008

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