Coherent transients in the femtosecond photoassociation of ultracold molecules.
We demonstrate the photoassociation of ultracold rubidium dimers using coherent femtosecond pulses. Starting from a cloud of ultracold rubidium atoms, electronically excited rubidium molecules are formed with shaped photoassociation pump pulses. The excited state molecules are projected with a time-delayed probe pulse onto molecular ion states which are detected in a mass spectrometer. Coherent transient oscillations of the excited state population are observed in the wings of the pump pulse, in agreement with the time-dependent solution of the Schrödinger equation of the excitation process.
Salzmann
W
W
Physikalisches Institut, Universität Freiburg, Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany.
Mullins
T
T
Eng
J
J
Albert
M
M
Wester
R
R
Weidemüller
M
M
Merli
A
A
Weber
S M
SM
Sauer
F
F
Plewicki
M
M
Weise
F
F
Wöste
L
L
Lindinger
A
A