Hamburg 2009 – wissenschaftliches Programm

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MO: Fachverband Molekülphysik

MO 11: Kalte Moleküle 2

MO 11.3: Vortrag

Dienstag, 3. März 2009, 14:30–14:45, VMP 6 HS-G

Cavity-enhanced Rayleigh scattering — •Michael Motsch, Martin Zeppenfeld, Pepijn W.H. Pinkse, and Gerhard Rempe — Max-Planck-Institut für Quantenoptik, Hans-Kopfermann-Str. 1, 85748 Garching, Germany

In recent years, the field of cold and ultracold polar molecules has received a lot of attention. Sensitive, non-destructive detection techniques for molecules would be of great help for different applications. Optical cavities facilitate such detection, as has been demonstrated with atomic systems. However, the transition from atoms to molecules is not straightforward, due to the complex internal structure of molecules.

Here, we make a first step towards cavity-based detection of cold molecules. We report on measurements of cavity-enhanced Rayleigh scattering into an optical Fabry-Perot resonator using several room-temperature atomic and molecular gases. The laser light is far detuned from any optical transition. The observed enhancement factors of up to 38 are in good agreement with theoretical predictions based on the classical model of a driven oscillator and light waves interfering inside the cavity. Conclusions for applications of this method to non-destructive detection of cold molecules are drawn.