Eur. Phys. J. D 18, 365-370 (2002)
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjd/e20020042

Photoionization and detection of ultracold Cs₂ molecules through diffuse bands

¹ Laboratoire Aimé Cotton (Unité propre du CNRS 3321) , CNRS, bâtiment 505, Campus d'Orsay, 91405 Orsay Cedex, France
² Institute of Physics, P.O. Box 304, 10001 Zagreb, Croatia

Corresponding author: ^a olivier.dulieu@lac.u-psud.fr

Received: 13 September 2001
Published online: 15 March 2002

Abstract

We present the results of absorption measurements in a cesium vapor around 630 K, together with photoionization spectra through a resonance-enhanced two-photon absorption of ultracold cesium dimers created after photoassociation of ultracold cesium atoms. The maximum efficiency of the ultracold molecule ionization is found for wavelengths where absorption at thermal energies is the strongest, in agreement with our theoretical simulations of both processes, involving the so-called Cs₂ diffuse bands. This result will be helpful for further optimization of such a direct way of detection of ultracold molecules.