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Playing With a Pair of Ultracold Atoms and Lasers: Towards a Novel Ultracold Photochemistry?
Author(s) -
Dulieu Olivier,
Pillet Pierre
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
israel journal of chemistry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.908
H-Index - 54
eISSN - 1869-5868
pISSN - 0021-2148
DOI - 10.1560/rhhr-c4m6-pffn-8a8j
Subject(s) - excited state , heteronuclear molecule , chemistry , atomic physics , ultracold atom , dipole , ground state , range (aeronautics) , coupling (piping) , molecule , physics , quantum mechanics , quantum , mechanical engineering , materials science , organic chemistry , engineering , composite material
The use of photoassociation of cold atoms has permitted the first demonstration of ultracold molecules in the microKelvin range. In this article we report the mechanisms and the dynamics studied in the case of the cesium dimer. The first key point is the efficiency of photoassociation for long‐range molecules, which involves a R −3 long‐range potential (R = interatomic distance) due to the dipole‐dipole interaction in the electronically excited potentials. The second one is the existence of the Condon point at intermediate distance to “stabilize” the electronically excited molecules reached by photoassociation after spontaneous decay towards ground state. Several molecular configurations are analyzed such as the so‐called double‐well route or the internal coupling route. We show the possibility to extend these concepts to the case of heteronuclear systems.