Berlin 2001 – scientific programme
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A: Atomphysik
A 10: Posters Wednesday (Cooling and Trapping, Electron Scattering and Recombination)
A 10.4: Poster
Wednesday, April 4, 2001, 12:30–15:00, AT3
Photoassociation Spectroscopy Of Cold Rubidium Atoms — •M. Kemmann1, I. Mistrik1, H. Helm1, and P. S. Julienne2 — 1Fak. f. Physik, Univ.Freiburg, 79104 Freiburg — 2NIST Gaithersburg, MD USA
Hyperfine recoupling in the long-range interaction between excited and ground state alkali atoms gives rise to miniscule barriers and shallow minima in a complex manifold of potential energy curves[1]. We explore resonances in the vicinity (± 5 GHz) of the Rb(2P3/2) + (F=1)Rb(2S1/2) dissociation limits using high resolution photoassociation spectroscopy in a magneto-optic trap. Vibrational series converging to the F=1 and F=2 hyperfine asymptotes are identified. They reveal the presence of a barrier and the onset of predissociation at about 1.5 GHz above the F=1 limit, in agreement with predictions from theory. Incorporating recoil ion spectroscopy with µeV resolution [2] in our experiment should permit the observation of the quasibound resonances in this energy region as well as the identification of the hyperfine final state in the predissociation process.
Research supported by the DFG (SFB 276, TP C16).
[1] C. J. Williams and P. S. Julienne, J. Chem. Phys. 101, 2634 (1994).
[2] S. Wolf and H. Helm, Phys. Rev. A 62, 043408 (2000).