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Communications in Theoretical Physics

Coherent Assembly of Ultracold Polyatomic Molecules: Two-Channel Interference

Hui Jing, Jia Kong

Published Feb 1, 2011• 1 citation
Publisher

Abstract

The evidences of three-body and four-body bound states have been reported in a series of very recent experiments with ultracold atoms. Here we study coherent creation of polyatomic molecules via a generalized atom-molecule dark-state technique. By keeping the intermediate trimer or tetramer state essentially unpopulated, the constructive quantum two-channel interference is shown to play an important role in, e.g. coherent atom-pentamer conversion at ultracold temperature.

DOI
10.1088/0253-6102/55/2/13

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The evidences of three-body and four-body bound states have been reported in a series of very recent experiments with ultracold atoms. Here we study coherent creation of polyatomic molecules via a generalized atom-molecule dark-state technique. By keeping the intermediate trimer or tetramer state essentially unpopulated, the constructive quantum two-channel interference is shown to play an important role in, e.g. coherent atom-pentamer conversion at ultracold temperature.
Abstract We investigate the creation of stable heteronuclear polyatomic molecules based on the three-body and higher order Efimov state via a generalized stimulated Raman adiabatic passage scheme. Within the mean-field approximation, we establish the multi-path conversion models and derive the dark state solutions. The multi-path atom–polymer conversion dynamics and interference effect are studied. We show that the multi-path constructive interference permits higher conversion efficiency, resulting in a state that is closer to the ideal dark state solutions. The effects on the conversion efficiency of the single-photon detuning, the strength of the Rabi pulse, the spontaneous emission from intermediate states and the interaction between the particles are also discussed. Our results not only include the previous ultracold molecule formation techniques, such as the single-path polyatomic molecule, double-path pentamer and triple-path trimer, but also open a possible route for the multi-path formation of more complex polyatomic molecules.
Ultracold diatomic molecules have achieved significant breakthroughs in recent years, enabling the exploration of quantum chemistry, precision measurements, and strongly correlated many-body physics. Extending ultracold molecular complexity to polyatomic molecules, such as triatomic and tetratomic molecules, has attracted considerable interest. However, the realization of ultracold polyatomic molecules remains technically challenging due to their complex energy-level structures. While only a few experiments have successfully demonstrated the formation of polyatomic molecules by magnetoassociation or electroassociation, here we present the first step toward producing tetratomic molecules through the development of a microwave association technique combined with microwave dressing. When the two lowest rotational states of the molecules are dressed by a microwave field, weakly bound tetramer states emerge in the entrance channel with free dark excited states ∣0⟩\ket{0}∣0⟩ and a dressed state ∣+⟩\ket{+}∣+⟩. The spectroscopy of these weakly bound tetramers is probed by another microwave field that drives transitions from the populated dressed states ∣+⟩\ket{+}∣+⟩. By precisely discriminating the complex hyperfine structure of the dark excited level ∣0⟩\ket{0}∣0⟩ from the dressed-state spectroscopy, the binding energy of the tetratomic molecules is measured and characterized. Our work contributes to the understanding of complex few-body physics within a system of microwave-dressed molecules and may open an avenue toward the creation and control of ultracold polyatomic molecules.
An ultracold three-species Bose–Fermi–Fermi degenerate atomic mixture 87 Rb– 40 K– 6 Li was realized very recently (Tagliber M et al 2008 Phys. Rev. Lett. 100 010401). Here, we study the creation of heteronuclear triatomic molecules in this mixture, and show that a constructive triple-path interference can lead to an almost ideal conversion rate, in comparison with the single- or double-path cases. The important effect of the initial population imbalance on the atom–molecule dark state is also investigated.
The study of the conversion of ultracold atoms into molecules has long remained a hot topic in atomic, molecular, and optical physics. However, most prior research has focused on diatomic molecules, with relatively scarce exploration of polyatomic molecules. Here we propose a two-step strategy for the formation of stable ultracold tetratomic molecules. We first suggest a generalized nonlinear stimulated Raman exact passage (STIREP) technique for the coherent conversion of ultracold atoms to tetratomic molecules, which is subsequently followed by a chainwise-STIREP technique to transfer the resulting molecules into a sufficiently stable ground state. Through systematic numerical analysis, we demonstrate that the proposed two-step strategy holds great potential for the robust, fast, and efficient formation of stable ultracold tetratomic molecules.