Preparation and Highly Sensitive Detection of Ultracold Molecules

C. B. Osborn, B. H. McGuyer, Gael Reinaudi +2 more

Olivier Dulieu

Stephan Kraft, Jochen Mikosch, Peter Frøhlich Staanum +5 more

Jizhou Wu, Jie Ma, Yichi Zhang +6 more

We present a controllable three-dimensional fluorescence modulation technique for the high sensitive trap loss detection of ultracold molecules. The lowest vibrational levels (v = 0 and 1) of the pure long-range state 0(-)(g) (6S(1/2) + 6P(3/2)) of a cesium molecule are detected directly with high rotational resolution. Our technique proved to be a robust tool for effectively improving the detection sensitivity of trap loss spectroscopy.

Zhonghao Li, Jinpeng Yuan, Zhonghua Ji +4 more

A simple and reliable method is used for the temperature measurement of ultracold molecules prepared in a magnetooptical trap (MOT). This method is based on the case where the initial distribution of an atomic or molecular sample is a Gaussian function of position and velocity. The atoms or molecules are detected by a sensitive photoionization detection technique. We obtain the temperature of molecules by analyzing the evolution of a photoionization signal. We compare the results of atomic temperature with the measurements by the release recapture technique (R&R), and find reasonable agreement. This provides a complementary method of determining the temperature of ultracold atoms and molecules.

S. Inouye