Tuesday | 10.24.06 | 4:00 p.m. | Harvard-Jefferson 356

Kevin Jones (Williams)

Photoassociation of Ultracold atoms: long range states and scattering, a review

When two atoms "go bump in the light" it is possible that they will photoassociate to form a diatomic molecule.  When the atoms in question are ultracold, then the spectral linewidth of photoassociation features is reduced to be comparable to the natural linewidth of strongly allowed atomic optical transitions (10 MHz), making photoassociation spectroscopy of ultracold atoms a high resolution technique.  In the spirit of a review article, I will start by providing an initial orientation to the field for those who have not been following it closely.  Then I will discuss an example. the spectroscopy of purely long range molecular states,  which ( I think)  illustrates aspects of the field which have drawn in atomic physicists not otherwise predisposed to be interested in molecules.  Then I will move more quickly through a series of examples designed to give a sense of the range of experiments in the field:  spectroscopy for extracting scattering lengths, photoassociation rates in condensates, photoassociation as a density probe for optimizing all optical Bose condensation and finally, photoassociation as a nuisance.