corner
corner
APS » Journals » Phys. Rev. A » Volume 70 » Issue 2
< Previous Article | Next Article >

Phys. Rev. A 70, 021402(R) (2004) [4 pages]

Formation and detection of ultracold ground-state polar molecules

Download: PDF (102 kB) Buy this article Export: BibTeX or EndNote (RIS)

C. Haimberger, J. Kleinert, M. Bhattacharya, and N. P. Bigelow
Department of Physics and Astronomy and Laboratory for Laser Energetics, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York 14627, USA

Received 23 February 2004; published 27 August 2004

We report on the formation of translationally cold NaCs molecules starting from a laser-cooled atomic vapor of Na and Cs atoms. Colliding atoms are transferred into bound molecular states in a two-step photoactivated process in which the atoms are first photoassociated by trap photons into an excited state molecular complex and then allowed to decay into a bound molecular ground state. Time-of-flight measurements show a translational temperature T=260±130 μK that reflects the measured temperature of the initial atomic gas.

© 2004 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevA.70.021402
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevA.70.021402
PACS:
32.80.Pj, 33.80.Rv, 33.80.Ps
 
< Previous Article | Next Article >