Berlin 2005 – scientific programme
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MO: Molekülphysik
MO 42: Poster II
MO 42.18: Poster
Tuesday, March 8, 2005, 14:00–16:00, Poster HU
Control of population flow in excitation of Na2 molecules by delayed pulses — •R. Garcia-Fernandez1, A. Ekers1, L.P. Yatsenko2, B.W. Shore1, and K. Bergmann1 — 1FB Physik, TU Kaiserslautern, Germany — 2Inst. of Physics of the Academy of Sciences, Kiev, Ukraine
We report on the experimental demonstration of a scheme for controlling the flow of population through highly excited states in a laser-driven three-level ladder excitation scheme in Na2 molecules. The method exploits the same physical concepts as the STImulated Raman Adiabatic Passage (STIRAP) technique. Unlike in STIRAP, where population is transferred from the initial level to the stable final level in a Λ-level linkage, we demonstrate population transfer in a ladder level linkage, where the final level is short lived. A pump laser couples a ro-vibrational level in the ground electronic state (X1Σg+,v′′=0,J′′=7) to the intermediate level A1Σu+,v′=10, J′=8, which in turn is linked to the final level 51Σg+,v=10,J=9 by a second laser. As in STIRAP, the maximum population transfer is observed when the second laser field precedes the pump laser field. A new scheme for the determination of the absolute population transfer efficiency, based on the branching of molecular decay into ro-vibrational transitions is demonstrated.