Abstract:
We propose a new possibility to form ultracold molecules, via photoassociation of a pair of cold atoms into vibrational levels of the external well of an excited electronic state located at intermediate interatomic distance ( ≈ 20 Bohr radii), and embedded in the dissociation continuum above its dissociation limit. The existence of such a well is demonstrated by conventional free-free absorption spectroscopy at thermal energies. Estimation for cold atom photoassociation and cold molecule formation rates are obtained within a perturbative approach [Drag et al., IEEE J. Quant. Electr. 36, 1378 (2000)], and are found observable for usual conditions of photoassociation experiments.
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Received 1st March 2001
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Almazor, ML., Dulieu, O., Masnou-Seeuws, F. et al. Formation of ultracold molecules via photoassociation with blue detuned laser light. Eur. Phys. J. D 15, 355–363 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1007/s100530170152
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s100530170152