Ultracold and dense samples of ground-state molecules in lattice potentials

by H.-C. Nägerl, M. J. Mark, E. Haller, M. Gustavsson, R. Hart, J. G. Danzl
Abstract:
We produce an ultracold and dense sample of rovibronic ground state Cs2 molecules close to the regime of quantum degeneracy, in a single hyperfine level, in the presence of an optical lattice. The molecules are individually trapped, in the motional ground state of an optical lattice well, with a lifetime of 8 s. For preparation, we start with a zero-temperature atomic Mott-insulator state with optimized double-site occupancy and efficiently associate weakly-bound dimer molecules on a Feshbach resonance. Despite extremely weak Franck-Condon wavefunction overlap, the molecules are subsequently transferred with >50% efficiency to the rovibronic ground state by a stimulated four-photon process. Our results present a crucial step towards the generation of Bose-Einstein condensates of ground-state molecules and, when suitably generalized to polar heteronuclear molecules such as RbCs, the realization of dipolar many-body quantum-gas phases in periodic potentials.
Reference:
Ultracold and dense samples of ground-state molecules in lattice potentials,
H.-C. Nägerl, M. J. Mark, E. Haller, M. Gustavsson, R. Hart, J. G. Danzl,
Journal of Physics: Conference Series, 264, 012015, 2011.
Bibtex Entry:
@article{N_gerl_2011,
	doi = {10.1088/1742-6596/264/1/012015},
  arxiv = {https://arxiv.org/abs/1011.0179},
	url = {https://doi.org/10.1088/1742-6596/264/1/012015},
	year = 2011,
	month = {jan},
	publisher = {{IOP} Publishing},
	volume = {264},
	pages = {012015},
	author = {H.-C. Nägerl and M. J. Mark and E. Haller and M. Gustavsson and R. Hart and J. G. Danzl},
	title = {Ultracold and dense samples of ground-state molecules in lattice potentials},
	journal = {Journal of Physics: Conference Series},
	abstract = {We produce an ultracold and dense sample of rovibronic ground state Cs2 molecules close to the regime of quantum degeneracy, in a single hyperfine level, in the presence of an optical lattice. The molecules are individually trapped, in the motional ground state of an optical lattice well, with a lifetime of 8 s. For preparation, we start with a zero-temperature atomic Mott-insulator state with optimized double-site occupancy and efficiently associate weakly-bound dimer molecules on a Feshbach resonance. Despite extremely weak Franck-Condon wavefunction overlap, the molecules are subsequently transferred with >50% efficiency to the rovibronic ground state by a stimulated four-photon process. Our results present a crucial step towards the generation of Bose-Einstein condensates of ground-state molecules and, when suitably generalized to polar heteronuclear molecules such as RbCs, the realization of dipolar many-body quantum-gas phases in periodic potentials.}
}