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Physical Review Letters

Observation of Optically Trapped Cold Cesium Molecules

T. Takekoshi, Brian M. Patterson, R. J. Knize

Published Dec 7, 1998• 222 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We report the first observation of optically trapped cold neutral molecules. Cesium dimers in the elect ronic ground state are produced directly in a magneto-optical trap and transferred to a dipole trap formed at the focus of a ${\mathrm{CO}}_{2}$ laser beam ( $\ensuremath{\lambda}\phantom{\rule{0ex}{0ex}}=\phantom{\rule{0ex}{0ex}}10.6\ensuremath{\mu}\mathrm{m}$). These neutral molecules were detected using photoionization and time-of-flight spectroscopy. Initial experiments indicate a cold molecule trap lifetime on the order of half a second.

DOI
10.1103/physrevlett.81.5105

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We report the first observation of optically trapped cold neutral molecules. Cesium dimers in the elect ronic ground state are produced directly in a magneto-optical trap and transferred to a dipole trap formed at the focus of a CO2{\mathrm{CO}}_{2}CO2​ laser beam ( \ensuremathλ=10.6\ensuremathμm\ensuremath{\lambda}\phantom{\rule{0ex}{0ex}}=\phantom{\rule{0ex}{0ex}}10.6\ensuremath{\mu}\mathrm{m}\ensuremathλ=10.6\ensuremathμm). These neutral molecules were detected using photoionization and time-of-flight spectroscopy. Initial experiments indicate a cold molecule trap lifetime on the order of half a second.
We have observed translationally cold electronic ground-state cesium dimers produced directly in a magneto-optical trap and also by photoassociation of cold atoms in this trap. These neutral molecules were detected using photoionization and time-of-flight spectroscopy. Initial experiments indicated a cold molecular formation rate of about $600{\mathrm{s}}^{\mathrm{\ensuremath{-}}1},$ with no photoassociation laser present. The measured translational temperature of the neutral cesium dimers was approximately 100 \ensuremath{\mu}K.
We report on the observation of ultracold ground electric-state cesium molecules produced directly in a magneto—optical trap with a good signal-to-noise ratio. These molecules arise from the photoassociation of magneto—optical trap lasers and they are detected by resonantly enhanced multiphoton ionization technology. The production rate of ultracold cesium molecules is up to 4×10 4 s −1 . We measure the characteristic time of the ground electric-state cesium molecules generated in the experiment and investigate the Cs 2 + molecular ion intensity as a function of the trapping laser intensity and the ionization pulse laser energy. We conclude that the production of cold cesium molecules may be enhanced by using appropriate experimental parameters, which is useful for future experiments involving the production and trapping of ultracold ground electric-state molecules.
We have performed photoassociative spectroscopy of cold Cs atoms in a vapor-cell magneto-optical trap, within $10{\mathrm{cm}}^{\ensuremath{-}1}$ below the dissociation limit 6s2S1/2+6p2P3/26s^{2}S_{1/2}+6p^{2}P_{3/2}6s2S1/2​+6p2P3/2​. Our detection method is based on pulsed-laser photoionization of Cs2{\mathrm{Cs}}_{2}Cs2​ molecules, selectively detected through a time-of-flight mass spectrometer. Temporal and spatial analysis of Cs2+{\mathrm{Cs}}_{2}^{+}Cs2+​ ions show for the first time the formation of translationally cold Cs2{\mathrm{Cs}}_{2}Cs2​ triplet ground state molecules, at a temperature $T\ensuremath{\sim}300\ensuremath{\mu}\mathrm{K}$.
We report on the observation of translationally cold Cs2 molecules at temperatures in the 300–70 μK range, produced by the photoassociation of cold Cs atoms in a vapor-cell magneto-optical trap. The detection method is based on pulsed-laser photoionization of Cs2 molecules into Cs2+ ions, selectively detected through a time-of-flight mass spectrometer. This technique, together with the usual trap-loss method, enables us to perform the spectroscopy of the long-range attractive molecular states below the 6s 2S1/2+6p 2P3/2 dissociation limit.
We report on the formation of translationally cold Cs2 ground-state molecules through photoassociation of laser-cooled cesium atoms in a magneto-optical trap. The cold molecules are obtained after spontaneous decay of photoassociated molecules, and detected after pulsed-laser photoionization into Cs2+ ions. Photoassociation spectra of cesium attractive molecular states below the 6S1/2+6P3/2 dissociation limits are reported, obtained with both ion detection and trap-loss method. A temperature as low as 20−5+15 has been measured for the molecular cloud.
In this work, we have developed and characterized a laser-pulse-train technique to observe cold Rb2{}_{2}2​ molecules trapped in an optical dipole trap. The molecules are produced in a magneto-optical trap, and then loaded into a crossed optical dipole trap. The time evolution of the molecular population is obtained by applying a laser pulse train, which photoionizes the ground-state molecules through intermediate molecular bands. Our results show that this technique allows us to obtain a faster data acquisition rate of the time evolution of the molecule population than other techniques.