Related papers: Photoassociation of ultracold long-range polyatomi…
Mergoassociation of two ultracold atoms to form a weakly bound molecule can occur when two optical traps that each contain a single atom are merged. Molecule formation occurs at an avoided crossing between a molecular state and the lowest…
We report the production of a high phase-space density mixture of $^{87}$Rb and $^{133}$Cs atoms in a levitated crossed optical dipole trap as the first step towards the creation of ultracold RbCs molecules via magneto-association. We…
A generalized class of ultra-long-range Rydberg molecules is proposed which consist of a multichannel Rydberg atom whose outermost electron creates a chemical bond with a distant ground state atom. Such multichannel Rydberg molecules…
We propose a coherent optical population transfer of weakly bound field-linked (FL) tetratomic molecules (tetramers) to deeper FL bound states using stimulated Raman adiabatic passage. We consider static-electric-field shielded polar…
Understanding ultracold collisions involving molecules is of fundamental importance for current experiments, where inelastic collisions typically limit the lifetime of molecular ensembles in optical traps. Here we present a broad study of…
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 study the impact of Rydberg molecule formation on the storage and retrieval of Rydberg polaritons in an ultracold atomic medium. We observe coherent revivals appearing in the retrieval efficiency of stored photons that originate from…
Ultra-cold RbCs molecules in high-lying vibrational levels of the a$^3\Sigma^+$ ground electronic state are confined in an optical trap. Inelastic collision rates of these molecules with both Rb and Cs atoms are determined for individual…
The properties of the electronic ground state of the polar and paramagnetic chromium--closed-shell-atom molecules have been investigated. State-of-the-art \textit{ab initio} techniques have been applied to compute the potential energy…
Ultracold molecules offer a broad variety of applications, ranging from metrology to quantum computing. However, forming "real" ultracold molecules, {\it i.e.} in deeply bound levels, is a very difficult proposition. Here, we show how…
Ultracold ground-state molecules can be formed from ultracold atoms via photoassociation followed by a spontaneous emission process. Typically, the molecular products are distributed over a range of final states. Here, we propose to use an…
Ultracold collisions of polar OH molecules are considered in the presence of an electrostatic field. The field exerts a strong influence on both elastic and state-changing inelastic collision rate constants, leading to clear experimental…
This is the manuscript of my "Habilitation \`a diriger des recherches", where I present the research work that I have done after my PhD, defended in 2009. The manuscript is divided in two parts. The first one is dedicated to…
We have investigated Feshbach resonances in collisions of high-spin atoms such as Er and Dy with closed-shell atoms such as Sr and Yb, using coupled-channel scattering and bound-state calculations. We consider both low-anisotropy and…
The electrostatic interaction between an excited atom and a diatomic ground state molecule in an arbitrary rovibrational level at large mutual separations is investigated with a general second-order perturbation theory, in the perspective…
We present an overview of our recent investigations of long-range interactions in an ultracold Cs Rydberg gas. These interactions are studied by high-resolution photoassociation spectroscopy, using excitation close to one-photon transitions…
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…
Progress on researches in the field of molecules at cold and ultracold temperatures is reported in this review. It covers extensively the experimental methods to produce, detect and characterize cold and ultracold molecules including…
Ultracold polar molecules in multilayered systems have been experimentally realized very recently. While experiments study these systems almost exclusively through their chemical reactivity, the outlook for creating and manipulating exotic…
We investigate theoretically the combination of first-order quadrupole-quadrupole and second-order dipole-dipole effects on the long-range electrostatic interactions between a ground-state homonuclear alkali-metal dimer and an excited…