Bulletin of the American Physical Society
2013 Joint Meeting of the APS Division of Atomic, Molecular & Optical Physics and the CAP Division of Atomic, Molecular & Optical Physics, Canada
Volume 58, Number 6
Monday–Friday, June 3–7, 2013; Quebec City, Canada
Session J3: Ultracold Molecules I |
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Chair: Robin Cote, University of Connecticut Room: 202 |
Wednesday, June 5, 2013 2:00PM - 2:12PM |
J3.00001: Ultra-long-range Rydberg molecules in electric and crossed electric and magnetic fields Peter Schmelcher, Markus Kurz We explore the behaviour of ultra-long range molecules in electric fields and combined crossed electric and magnetic field. First the main properties of the pure electric field case are summarized, including the possibility to shift intersections of potential energy surfaces due to p-wave and s-wave interactions, and the tunability of the overall potential energy curves as well as its individual wells. We then proceed by showing the existence of ultra-long-range giant dipole molecules formed by a neutral alkali ground state atom that is bound to the decentered electronic wave function of a giant dipole atom. The adiabatic potential surfaces emerging from the interaction of the ground state atom with the giant dipole electron posses a rich topology depending on the degree of electronic excitation. Binding energies and the vibrational motion in the energetically lowest surfaces are analyzed by means of perturbation theory and exact diagonalization techniques. The resulting molecules are truly giant with internuclear distances up to several $\mu m$. Finally, we demonstrate the existence of intersection manifolds of excited electronic states that potentially lead to a vibrational decay of the ground state atom dynamics. [Preview Abstract] |
Wednesday, June 5, 2013 2:12PM - 2:24PM |
J3.00002: Excitation of ultracold molecules to trilobite-like Rydberg states Michael Bellos, Ryan Carollo, Jayita Banerjee, Edward Eyler, Phillip Gould, William Stwalley A class of long-range Rydberg molecules, sometimes called ``trilobite states,'' occurs when a ground-state atom is embedded in the electronic cloud of a Rydberg atom.\footnote{C. H. Greene, A. S. Dickinson, and H. R. Sadeghpour, Phys. Rev. Lett. \textbf{85}, 2458 (2000).} The bond between the Rydberg atom and the ground-state atom originates from the low-energy scattering of the Rydberg electron from the ground-state atom. We produce trilobite-like states of ultracold Rb$_2$ at low principal quantum numbers and at internuclear distances below 40 bohr. We populate these states through single-photon ultraviolet transitions starting from molecules in high-lying vibrational levels. This demonstrates that long-range Rydberg molecules can also be excited through bound-bound transitions, in contrast with previous studies that used free-bound transitions. We discuss the advantages of a bound-bound pathway. [Preview Abstract] |
Wednesday, June 5, 2013 2:24PM - 2:36PM |
J3.00003: Coherent Photoassociation of an $^{88}$Sr BEC B.J. DeSalvo, M. Yan, Y. Huang, T.C. Killian We present a study of the coherent regime of one-photon photoassociation of a Bose-Einstein condensate using a photoassociative transition to a state on the $^1S_0+^3P_1$ molecular potential in $^{88}$Sr. The high density of the initial $^{88}$Sr atomic condensates ($10^{15}/cm^3$) and the long lifetime of the metastable $^1S_0+^3P_1$ molecular state allows us to observe Rabi oscillations of population between atomic and molecular condensates. We also observe large asymmetries and shifts of the excitation spectrum with time. Simulations suggest we are creating condensates in an excited molecular state with approximately 500 molecules. [Preview Abstract] |
Wednesday, June 5, 2013 2:36PM - 2:48PM |
J3.00004: External electric field alignment and long range forces between molecules Jason Byrd, John Montgomery, Robin C\^ot\'e Long range electrostatic, induction and dispersion coefficients including terms of order $R^{-8}$ have been calculated by the sum over states method using time dependent density functional theory. The laboratory-frame transformation of electrostatic moments and van der Waals coefficients corresponding to the alignment of arbitrary molecules has been derived. From this transformation the effect of subsequent perturbations due to external electric fields have been computed for a sequence of molecules of experimental importance. Possible enhancements to the molecular alignment process due to choices in field geometries and strengths are investigated. Also derived are analytic solutions to the dressed-state laboratory-frame electrostatic moments and long range intermolecular potentials in the DC low-field limit. [Preview Abstract] |
Wednesday, June 5, 2013 2:48PM - 3:00PM |
J3.00005: High-resolution ultracold-molecule spectroscopy with possible sensitivity to QED Christopher B. Osborn, Bart H. McGuyer, Gael Reinaudi, Michael McDonald, Tanya Zelevinsky We describe an optimized route for producing microkelvin ground-state $^{88}$Sr$_2$ molecules in an optical lattice, and an efficient imaging approach based on ultracold fragmentation. This imaging technique yields high-Q molecular spectra. The high-resolution Zeeman spectra uncover very weakly bound rovibrational states with possible sensitivity to QED effects, and challenge the theoretical description of this seemingly simple system. [Preview Abstract] |
Wednesday, June 5, 2013 3:00PM - 3:12PM |
J3.00006: Dissipative binding of atoms by non-conservative forces Mikhail Lemeshko, Hendrik Weimer The formation of molecules and supramolecular structures results from bonding by conservative forces acting among electrons and nuclei and giving rise to equilibrium configurations defined by minima of the interaction potential. Here we show that bonding can also occur by the non-conservative forces responsible for interaction-induced coherent population trapping. The bound state arises in a dissipative process and manifests itself as a stationary state at a preordained interatomic distance. Remarkably, such a dissipative bonding is present even when the interactions among the atoms are purely repulsive. The dissipative bound states can be created and studied spectroscopically in present-day experiments with ultracold atoms or molecules and can potentially serve for cooling strongly interacting quantum gases.\\[4pt] M. Lemeshko and H. Weimer, arXiv:1211.4035 [Preview Abstract] |
Wednesday, June 5, 2013 3:12PM - 3:24PM |
J3.00007: Effective scattering of dipole molecules in quasi-one-dimensional waveguides Liming Guan, Xiaoling Cui We study the effective s-wave scattering between dipolar molecules confined in quasi-one-dimensional waveguides. In contrary to a general belief that the system is repulsively interacting when the dipole moment is perpendicular to the waveguide, we find the effective interaction will turn negative and also go through a sequence of scattering resonances as increasing the strength of dipole-dipole interactions(DDI). This is attributed to the interplay of higher transverse modes of the confinement, along which DDI shows attractive character. Unlike conventional confinement-induced-resonance with short-range s-wave interactions, here the DDI induced resonances are insensitive to the background s-wave scattering length determined by short-range potentials. Moreover, the DDI induced resonances are associated with large effective-range, which sensitively depends on the strength of DDI. These results are expected to be observable in future experiment of dipolar molecules under confinements. [Preview Abstract] |
Wednesday, June 5, 2013 3:24PM - 3:36PM |
J3.00008: Zero-energy resonances of hydrogen diatom isotopologues: tuning quasiresonant transitions in vibration space Benhui Yang, R. Forrey, P. Stancil, S. Fonseca dos Santos, N. Balakrishnan Highly efficient and specific energy transfer mechanisms that involve rotation-rotation (RR), vibration-vibration (VV), and vibration-rotation (VR) exchange in diatomic molecules are examined theoretically in ultracold H$_2$, D$_2$, and HD self-collisions as a function of initial vibrational level $v$. From unique full-dimensional inelastic scattering calculations, the three quasiresonant (QR) mechanisms, QRRR, QRVV, and QRVR, are found to operate for all vibrational levels and yield complex scattering lengths which vary smoothly with $v$. Exceptions to this trend occur at select high values of $v$ where the scattering lengths are modulated by orders of magnitude corresponding to the location of an $s$-wave zero-energy resonance in ``vibration space.'' The quasiresonant mechanisms, which are not very sensitive to the details of the interaction potential, generally control the final distribution of molecular states for any given initial distribution. The zero-energy resonances are more sensitive to the potential and may be used to vibrationally ``tune'' the interaction strength, similar to methods which vary applied external fields. [Preview Abstract] |
Wednesday, June 5, 2013 3:36PM - 3:48PM |
J3.00009: Alignment-mediated entanglement of cold polar molecules Felipe Herrera, K. Birgitta Whaley, Sabre Kais Many-particle entanglement can be found in the ground state of natural solids and strongly interacting atomic and molecular gases, but it is still experimentally challenging to generate highly entangled states between weakly interacting particles in a scalable way. We describe a one-step method to generate rotational entanglement between polar molecules using strong off-resonant laser pulses, in the absence of DC electric fields. The laser pulse induces molecular alignment. For a pair of polar molecules separated by up to several micrometers in optical traps, maximally entangled states can be created using a single aligning pulse with intensity in the range $10^{10}-10^{12}$ W/cm$^2$ and duration in the range $10-10^2$ ns. We present two methods for entanglement detection. One based on local molecular orientation measurements to establish violations of Bell's inequality, and a second method based on the linear microwave absorption of the molecular ensemble. We analyze the post-pulse entanglement dynamics in noisy optical traps, and discuss applications of the system for infrared photon detection and quantum computing. [Preview Abstract] |
Wednesday, June 5, 2013 3:48PM - 4:00PM |
J3.00010: Ultracold Mixture of Lithium and Metastable Ytterbium Atoms Alexander Khramov, Anders Hansen, William Dowd, Richard Roy, Subhadeep Gupta We are investigating the ultracold system comprised of ground-state lithium ($^{6}$Li) and ytterbium in the metastable $^{3}$P$_{2}$ state ($^{174}$Yb*). Quantum mixtures of alkali and alkaline-earth-like atoms can offer new opportunities for the study of few- and many-body physics. In addition, they can be used to create polar paramagnetic molecules. Unlike mixtures where both species are in the ground state, mixtures with Yb in the metastable state are expected to exhibit wide magnetic Feshbach resonances. In our case, this would allow for the study of strongly-interacting mass-mismatched systems and creation of diatomic LiYb* molecules by magneto-association. Furthermore, a diatomic molecule formed from these constituents is predicted to have a large dipole moment of 4-7 Debye. We will report on the production of Yb in the $^{3}$P$_{2}$ state in a 1064 nm optical trap by optical pumping via the $^{3}$D$_{2}$ state. We will also report on ongoing experiments with co-trapped Li. [Preview Abstract] |
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