A pump-probe study of the formation of rubidium molecules by ultrafast photoassociation of ultracold atoms

TL;DR

This paper presents an experimental and numerical study of ultracold rubidium molecule formation via photoassociation, aiming to develop coherent control methods for stabilizing molecules in their ground state.

Contribution

It introduces a pump-probe technique to observe ultracold molecule formation and characterizes the population involved, advancing the understanding of coherent control in ultracold chemistry.

Findings

Loosely bound excited-state dimers are formed.

The population involved in the process is distinct from background molecules.

Numerical simulations support experimental observations.

Abstract

An experimental pump-probe study of the photoassociative creation of translationally ultracold rubidium molecules is presented together with numerical simulations of the process. The formation of loosely bound excited-state dimers is observed as a first step towards a fully coherent pump-dump approach to the stabilization of Rb$_2$ into its lowest ground vibrational states. The population that contributes to the pump-probe process is characterized and found to be distinct from a background population of pre-associated molecules.