Resonance Transformation of Light by Molecules with Two Overlapping Excitation Levels

Vitaly Morozov, P. P. Shorygin

V. A. Morozov, Yu. M. Dubina, Evgenii A. Smolenskii

A mathematical modeling of the time evolution of the populations of the states of a five-level molecule during transformation of resonant monochromatic irradiation and spontaneous emission from the highest-energy state excited by a short pulse of light is performed. The formalism of the optical Bloch equations and quantum theory of radiation are applied a composite system consisting of a molecule and a quantized radiation field. The results of simulation of the evolution of the population of the states of the molecule in the case of spontaneous emission are similar for both of these two approaches, but differ significantly in the case of conversion by the molecule of monochromatic radiation. These differences are the greater, the higher the intensity of resonance Rayleigh scattering or (and) relaxed fluorescence, as a result of which the molecule returns to the initial ground state. An explanation of the nature of these differences is given.

Alexander A. Ivanov, V. V. Parail, T. K. Soboleva

RAYLEIGH

Krzysztof Jachymski

Abstract Overlapping Feshbach resonances are commonly observed in experiments with ultracold atoms and can influence the molecule production process. We derive an effective approach to describe magnetoassociation in an external trap in the presence of multiple overlapping resonances. We study how the strength and shape of the trap affects the energy level structure and demonstrate the existence of a regime in which the conventional two-channel Landau–Zener description of the molecule production process breaks down.

Adeel Altaf

We present spectroscopic studies of ultracold LiRb molecules using ionization detection. The molecules are created by cooling and trapping Li and Rb atoms in overlapping magneto-optical traps (MOTs) and using light resonant with a free-bound transition to create weakly bound excited state molecules in a process known as photoassociation (PA). We explore weakly bound vibrational levels of LiRb with PA spectroscopy using ionization detection and, where possible, compare our results with earlier measurements performed in our lab using trap-loss spectroscopy. In addition, we also probe vibrational levels of the ground triplet electronic state and excited electronic states using resonantly enhanced multiphoton ionization (REMPI) spectroscopy. We identify several vibrational levels of the α3Σ+, (3)3ΠΩ and (4)3Σ + states and compare our observations with theoretical calculations. As LiRb is one of the least studied heteronuclear diatomic molecules, these studies are aimed towards exploring the molecular structure. The spectroscopic work is also in line with the long-term project goals of transferring ultracold LiRb molecules into the lowest rotational and vibrational levels of the ground singlet electronic state. Molecules in this rovibronic ground state possess a large electric dipole moment, which is essential for application of ultracold molecules in various quantum computation schemes. The rovibronic ground state will also be an ideal starting point for investigating molecular entangled states.