• Featured in Physics
  • Editors' Suggestion
  • Open Access

Loss of Ultracold Rb87Cs133 Molecules via Optical Excitation of Long-Lived Two-Body Collision Complexes

Philip D. Gregory, Jacob A. Blackmore, Sarah L. Bromley, and Simon L. Cornish
Phys. Rev. Lett. 124, 163402 – Published 23 April 2020
Physics logo See synopsis: Excited Molecules Escape Their Trap

Abstract

We show that the lifetime of ultracold ground-state Rb87Cs133 molecules in an optical trap is limited by fast optical excitation of long-lived two-body collision complexes. We partially suppress this loss mechanism by applying square-wave modulation to the trap intensity, such that the molecules spend 75% of each modulation cycle in the dark. By varying the modulation frequency, we show that the lifetime of the collision complex is 0.53±0.06ms in the dark. We find that the rate of optical excitation of the collision complex is 32+4×103W1cm2s1 for λ=1550nm, leading to a lifetime of <100ns for typical trap intensities. These results explain the two-body loss observed in experiments on nonreactive bialkali molecules.

  • Figure
  • Figure
  • Figure
  • Figure
  • Received 7 February 2020
  • Accepted 27 March 2020

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.124.163402

Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI.

Published by the American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Atomic, Molecular & Optical

synopsis

Key Image

Excited Molecules Escape Their Trap

Published 23 April 2020

The loss of ultracold molecules from an optical trap comes from optical excitation of the complexes that form when two of the molecules collide.

See more in Physics

Authors & Affiliations

Philip D. Gregory, Jacob A. Blackmore, Sarah L. Bromley, and Simon L. Cornish*

  • Department of Physics, Joint Quantum Centre (JQC) Durham-Newcastle, Durham University, South Road, Durham DH1 3LE, United Kingdom

  • *Corresponding author. s.l.cornish@durham.ac.uk

Article Text

Click to Expand

References

Click to Expand
Issue

Vol. 124, Iss. 16 — 24 April 2020

Reuse & Permissions
Author publication services for translation and copyediting assistance advertisement

Authorization Required


×
×

Images

×

Sign up to receive regular email alerts from Physical Review Letters

Reuse & Permissions

It is not necessary to obtain permission to reuse this article or its components as it is available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI are maintained. Please note that some figures may have been included with permission from other third parties. It is your responsibility to obtain the proper permission from the rights holder directly for these figures.

×

Log In

Cancel
×

Search


Article Lookup

Paste a citation or DOI

Enter a citation
×