Resonant Coupling in the Formation of Ultracold Ground State Molecules via Photoassociation
C. M. Dion, C. Drag, O. Dulieu, B. Laburthe Tolra, F. Masnou-Seeuws, and P. Pillet
Laboratoire Aimé Cotton du CNRS, Bâtiment 505, Campus d'Orsay, 91405 Orsay, France
We demonstrate the existence of a new mechanism for the formation of ultracold molecules via photoassociation of cold cesium atoms. The experimental results, interpreted with numerical calculations, suggest that a resonant coupling between vibrational levels of the 0u+ (6s+6p1/2) and (6s+6p3/2) states enables formation of ultracold molecules in vibrational levels of the ground state well below the 6s+6s dissociation limit. Such a scheme should be observable with many other electronic states and atomic species.
This article appeared in The Physical Review Letters 86, 2253 (2001) and may be found at http://publish.aps.org/abstract/PRL/v86/p2253.
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