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Chinese Physics B

Cold cesium molecules produced directly in a magneto—optical trap

Hongshan Zhang, Zhonghua Ji, Jinpeng Yuan, Yanting Zhao, Jie Ma, Lirong Wang, Liantuan Xiao, Suotang Jia

Published Dec 1, 2011• 12 citations
Publisher

Abstract

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.

DOI
10.1088/1674-1056/20/12/123702

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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 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 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.
Photoassociation of ultracold atoms is an important method for producing stable ultracold molecules with extensive applications. Ion spectroscopy technique, which has higher sensitivity compared with trap loss spectroscopy and fragment spectroscopy, plays an important pole in the research of photoassociation spectroscopy. Based on ion spectroscopy technique, a complete experimental system is employed to produce and detect the ultracold ground state molecules, including the equipment of photoionization and time-of-fight mass spectroscopy. Ultra-cold ground state cesium molecules are demonstrated by the ionization detection technique. The number of the ground-state molecules produced in our MOT is measured. In addition, the relationship of the time interval of the cesium atom ion and the cesium molecular ion to the metal grid voltage is studied for the optimization of the experimental parameters.
We use time-of-flight mass spectroscopy to detect the ultracold ground state Cs2 molecules formed directly by a photoassociation due to the trapping laser beams and repumping laser beam in a magneto-optical trap. We investigate the dependences of the Cs2+ intensity on operating voltage of micro-channel-plate, accelerating field intensity and duration time of the accelerating field. The experimental results are consistent with theoretical fitting. We obtain the best optimal parameters suited to our experimental condition, which is important for the future experiment on ultracold molecule photoassociation and photoionization spectroscopy.
We describe the experimental observation of ultracold NaCs+{\mathrm{NaCs}}^{+}NaCs+ molecular formation in a novel two-species magneto-optical trap. We interpret our observations in terms of a photoassociative ionization pathway similar to that observed in a sodium trap: $\mathrm{Na}+\mathrm{Cs}+\ensuremath{\Elzxh}{\ensuremath{\omega}}_{\mathrm{Na}}+\ensuremath{\Elzxh}{\ensuremath{\omega}}_{\mathrm{Cs}}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}{\mathrm{NaCs}}^{+}{+e}^{\ensuremath{-}}$. We have directly measured the NaCs+{\mathrm{NaCs}}^{+}NaCs+ production rate as a function of the excitation laser frequency and intensity elucidating the role of ground-state hyperfine levels. We have observed resonance structures in the frequency-dependent ion rate which we associate with the molecular character of the process.
Several different experiments involving the making of cold and ultracold molecules are performed and proposed. Ultracold cesium molecules are produced in a magneto-optical trap (MOT) by photoassociation near the 6P j, 7Pj, 9S 1/2, 6D3/2, 7D3/2 and doubly excited asymptotes. Perturbation effects related to resonant channel coupling were observed in photoassociation spectra below the 6 P1/2 asymptote. Such effects are used to illustrate a ground state ultracold molecule formation mechanism, which can also be formed in one step photoassociation to the double minimum 31S+m state. In addition, a new technique of making cold molecules of cesium hydride is proposed, using a cold hydrogen beam source and a cesium MOT. Due to reaction energetics, the formed CsH molecules should be in their lowest rovibrational states. ^