https://doi.org/10.1007/s100530170152
Formation of ultracold molecules via photoassociation with blue detuned laser light
1
Laboratoire Aimé Cotton, CNRS, bâtiment 505, Campus d'Orsay, 91405 Orsay Cedex, France
2
Institute of Physics, P.O. Box 304, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia
Corresponding author: a olivier.dulieu@lac.u-psud.fr
Received:
1
March
2001
Published online: 15 September 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
(
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
(2000)], and are found observable for usual conditions of photoassociation
experiments.
PACS: 32.80.Pj – Optical cooling of atoms; trapping / 34.50.Rk – Laser-modified scattering and reactions / 33.80.Ps – Optical cooling of molecules; trapping
© EDP Sciences, Società Italiana di Fisica, Springer-Verlag, 2001
