München 2004 – scientific programme

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Q: Quantenoptik und Photonik

Q 38: Poster Fallen und Kühlung

Q 38.1: Poster

Thursday, March 25, 2004, 14:00–16:00, Schellingstr. 3

Observation of Ultracold Ground-State Heteronuclear Molecules — •G.D. Telles, M.W. Mancini, A.R.L. Caires, V.S. Bagnato, and L.G. Marcassa — Instituto de Física de São Carlos, Universidade de São Paulo, PO 369, 13560-970, São Carlos-SP, Brazil.

We report the observation of translationally ultracold heteronuclear ground-state molecules in a two species magneto-optical trap (MOT) containing ³⁹K and ⁸⁵Rb atoms. The KRb molecules are produced via photoassociation and detected by multiphoton ionization. We had characterized their temperature and measured their formation rate constant. We believe that the two species MOTs could be used as a reliable source of ultracold molecules to be captured by electrostatic, magnetic or optical traps. This possibility will certainly motivate further investigation of quantum collective effects as well as high-resolution spectroscopy of the rovibrational level structure of cold heteronuclear molecular systems.