Probing weakly bound molecules with nonresonant light.
We show that weakly bound molecules can be probed by "shaking" in a pulsed nonresonant laser field. The field introduces a centrifugal term which expels the highest vibrational level from the potential that binds it. Our numerical simulations applied to the Rb(2) and KRb Feshbach molecules indicate that shaking by feasible laser pulses can be used to accurately recover the square of the vibrational wave function and, by inversion, also the long-range part of the molecular potential.
Fritz-Haber-Institut der Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, Faradayweg 4-6, D-14195 Berlin, Germany.
Mikhail
M
Lemeshko
Bretislav
B
Friedrich