# Driving the formation of the RbCs dimer by a laser pulse. A nonlinear dynamics approach

## TL;DR

This paper investigates how intense laser pulses can induce the formation of RbCs molecules using nonlinear dynamics, revealing the process depends on subtle changes in radial momentum and can be modeled with a simplified one-dimensional approach.

## Contribution

It introduces a reduced one-dimensional model to predict RbCs formation probability based on laser intensity, simplifying the complex dynamics involved.

## Key findings

- Formation probability peaks at an optimal laser intensity.
- A small change in radial momentum drives molecule formation.
- A simplified model accurately estimates formation likelihood.

## Abstract

We study the formation of the RbCs molecule by an intense laser pulse using nonlinear dynamics. Under the Born-Oppenheimer approximation, the system is modeled by a two degree of freedom rovibrational Hamiltonian, which includes the ground electronic potential energy curve of the diatomic molecule and the interaction of the molecular polarizability with the electric field of the laser. As the laser intensity increases, we observe that the formation probability first increases and then decreases after reaching a maximum. We show that the analysis can be simplified to the investigation of the long-range interaction between the two atoms. We conclude that the formation is due to a very small change in the radial momentum of the dimer induced by the laser pulse. From this observation, we build a reduced one dimensional model which allows us to derive an approximate expression of the formation probability as a function of the laser intensity.