Creation of a Molecular Condensate by Dynamically Melting a Mott Insulator

D. Jaksch; V. Venturi; J. I. Cirac; C. J. Williams; P. Zoller

doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.89.040402

Creation of a Molecular Condensate by Dynamically Melting a Mott Insulator

D. Jaksch, V. Venturi, J. I. Cirac, C. J. Williams, and P. Zoller

Phys. Rev. Lett. 89, 040402 – Published 2 July 2002

Abstract

We propose the creation of a molecular Bose-Einstein condensate by loading an atomic condensate into an optical lattice and driving it into a Mott insulator with exactly two atoms per site. Molecules in a Mott insulator state are then created under well defined conditions by photoassociation with essentially unit efficiency. Finally, the Mott insulator is melted and a superfluid state of the molecules is created. We study the dynamics of this process and photoassociation of tightly trapped atoms.

Received 4 April 2002

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.89.040402

Authors & Affiliations

D. Jaksch¹, V. Venturi³, J. I. Cirac², C. J. Williams³, and P. Zoller¹

¹Institute for Theoretical Physics, University of Innsbruck, A-6020 Innsbruck, Austria
²Max-Planck Institut für Quantenoptik, Hans-Kopfermann Strasse 1, D-85748 Garching, Germany
³Atomic Physics Division, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, Maryland 20899-8423