Sensitive detection of cold cesium molecules formed on Feshbach resonances.
We observe the dynamic formation of quasibound Cs2 molecules near Feshbach resonances in a cold sample of atomic cesium. Using an external probe beam, more than 15 weakly coupled molecular states are detected with high sensitivity, whose collisional formation cross sections are as small as sigma=2 x 10(-16) cm(2). By modeling the molecule formation and dissociation processes with rate equations, we conclude that at an atomic density of 10(13) cm(-3) and temperature of 5 microK, more than 5(1)x10(5) Cs2 molecules in a single rovibrational state coexist with 10(8) Cs atoms in our trap.
Chin
Cheng
C
Physics Department, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305-4060, USA.
Kerman
Andrew J
AJ
Vuletić
Vladan
V
Chu
Steven
S