Related papers: Population redistribution in optically trapped pol…
Ultracold LiCs molecules in the absolute ground state X$^1\Sigma^+$, v"=0, J"=0 are formed via a single photo-association step starting from laser-cooled atoms. The selective production of v"=0, J"=2 molecules with a 50-fold higher rate is…
A coherent control scheme for the population distribution in the vibrational states of nonpolar molecules is proposed. Our theoretical analysis and results of numerical simulations for the interaction of the hydrogen molecular ion in its…
We have produced ultracold, polar RbCs* molecules via photoassociation in a laser-cooled mixture of Rb and Cs atoms. Using a model of the RbCs* molecular interaction which reproduces the observed rovibrational structure, we infer decay…
The methods producing cold molecules from cold atoms tend to leave molecular ensembles with substantial residual internal energy. For instance, Cs2 molecules initially formed via photoassociation of cold Cs atoms are in several vibrational…
We recently reported the formation of ultracold LiCs molecules in the rovibrational ground state X1Sigma+,v''=0,J''=0 [J. Deiglmayr et al., PRL 101, 133004 (2008)]. Here we discuss details of the experimental setup and present a thorough…
The population distribution within the ground-state of an atomic ensemble is of large significance in a variety of quantum optics processes. We present a method to reconstruct the detailed population distribution from a set of absorption…
We demonstrate the production of ultracold polar RbCs molecules in their vibronic ground state, via photoassociation of laser-cooled atoms followed by a laser-stimulated state transfer process. The resulting sample of $X ^1\Sigma^+ (v=0)$…
We study a LiCs strongly-interacting molecular gas loaded into an one-dimensional optical lattice at quarter filling. The molecules are in the lowest electronic and vibrational state, $X^{1}\Sigma$ ($\nu=0$). Due to the large intermolecular…
We present spectra of ultracold $^7$Li$^{85}$Rb molecules in their electronic ground state formed by spontaneous decay of weakly bound photoassociated molecules. Beginning with atoms in a dual species magneto-optical trap (MOT), weakly…
We produce an ultracold and dense sample of rovibronic ground state Cs_2 molecules close to the regime of quantum degeneracy, in a single hyperfine level, in the presence of an optical lattice. The molecules are individually trapped, in the…
Using resonance-enhanced two-photon ionization, we detect ultracold, ground-state RbCs molecules formed via photoassociation in a laser-cooled mixture of 85Rb and 133Cs atoms. We obtain extensive bound-bound excitation spectra of these…
We propose a modified Stark-chirped rapid adiabatic passage technique for a robust rovibrational population transfer in the gas phase molecules in the presence of certain inhomogeneous electric fields. As an example application, the new…
We study the internal state dynamics of optically trapped polyatomic molecules subject to room temperature blackbody radiation. Using rate equations that account for radiative decay and blackbody excitation between rovibrational levels of…
Some of us have recently reported in Science 321 232 (2008) vibrational cooling of translationally cold Cs_2 molecules into the lowest vibrational level v=0 of the singlet X 1Sigma_g ground electronic state. Starting from a sample of cold…
Microscopic control over polar molecules with tunable interactions would enable realization of novel quantum phenomena. Using an applied electric field gradient, we demonstrate layer-resolved state preparation and imaging of ultracold…
We have recently demonstrated that optical pumping methods combined with photoassociation of ultra-cold atoms can produce ultra-cold and dense samples of molecules in their absolute rovibronic ground state. More generally, both the external…
We report the observation of microwave coherent control of rotational states of ultracold $^{85}$Rb$^{133}$Cs molecules formed in their vibronic ground state by short-range photoassociation. Molecules are formed in the single rotational…
Detecting the internal state of polar molecules is a substantial challenge when standard techniques such as resonance-enhanced multi photon ionization (REMPI) or laser-induced fluorescense (LIF) do not work. As this is the case for most…
In this work we investigate the theory for three different uni-directional population transfer schemes in trapped multilevel systems which can be utilized to cool molecular ions. The approach we use exploits the laser-induced coupling…
We present an opto-electrical cooling scheme for polar molecules based on a Sisyphus-type cooling cycle in suitably tailored electric trapping fields. Dissipation is provided by spontaneous vibrational decay in a closed level scheme found…