Photoassociation spectroscopy of a Spin-1 Bose-Einstein condensate

TL;DR

This study uses high-resolution photoassociation spectroscopy on a spin-1 Bose-Einstein condensate to identify molecular states and optimize conditions for manipulating spin-dependent interactions.

Contribution

It introduces spin-dependent photoassociation spectroscopy for precise molecular state identification in a spinor BEC, aligning experimental results with theoretical models.

Findings

Identification of molecular states matching hyperfine-rotational Hamiltonian

Estimation of scattering length changes due to photoassociation

Determination of laser frequency ranges to enhance spin-dependent interactions

Abstract

We report on the high resolution photoassociation spectroscopy of a $^{87}$Rb spin-1 Bose-Einstein condensate to the $1_\mathrm{g} (P_{3/2}) v = 152$ excited molecular states. We demonstrate the use of spin dependent photoassociation to experimentally identify the molecular states and their corresponding initial scattering channel. These identifications are in excellent agreement with the eigenvalues of a hyperfine-rotational Hamiltonian. Using the observed spectra we estimate the change in scattering length and identify photoassociation laser light frequency ranges that maximize the change in the spin-dependent mean-field interaction energy.