Enhancing photoassociation rates by non-resonant light control of shape resonances

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that non-resonant light can significantly enhance photoassociation rates by modifying atomic shape resonances, enabling more efficient formation of ground state molecules from thermal atomic ensembles.

Contribution

It introduces a method using high-intensity non-resonant light to control shape resonances, substantially increasing photoassociation efficiency.

Findings

Photoassociation rates increased by several orders of magnitude.

Non-resonant light modifies the thermal atomic cloud to favor shape resonances.

Enhanced molecule formation in thermal ensembles achieved.

Abstract

Photoassociation, assembling molecules from atoms using laser light, is limited by the low density of atom pairs at sufficiently short interatomic separations. Here, we show that non-resonant light with intensities of the order of 10^10 W/cm^2 modifies the thermal cloud of atoms, enhancing the Boltzmann weight of shape resonances and pushing scattering states below the dissociation limit. This leads to an enhancement of photoassociation rates by several orders of magnitude and opens the way to significantly larger numbers of ground state molecules in a thermal ensemble than achieved so far.