Hannover 2010 – scientific programme
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MO: Fachverband Molekülphysik
MO 19: Ultracold Molecules (with Q)
MO 19.4: Talk
Thursday, March 11, 2010, 11:30–11:45, E 001
Population redistribution of vibrational ground state levels in ultracold polar molecules — •Johannes Deiglmayr1,2, Marc Repp1, Olivier Dulieu3, Roland Wester2, and Matthias Weidemüller1 — 1Physikalisches Institut, Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg — 2Physikalisches Institut, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg — 3Laboratoire Aimé Cotton, CNRS, Orsay
Recently we achieved the formation of LiCs molecules in the lowest levels of the ground state[1]. Polar molecules like LiCs can show strong long-range and anisotropic interactions, which makes ultracold dense gases of such molecules ideal systems for quantum information or the study of new quantum phases. However a large permanent electric dipole moment also leads to a stronger coupling of the internal molecular state to the environment via black-body radiation (BBR). Here the influence of BBR-driven transitions and spontaneous decay on the distribution of populated levels is investigated numerically for the ground states of LiCs and KRb using accurate potential energy curves and transition dipole moments. We will show experimental evidence for the occurrence of such redistribution processes in a sample of ultracold LiCs molecules. The molecules are formed by photoassociation and trapped in a quasi-electrostatic trap. State-selective detection of the molecules reveals population dynamics on time-scales which are in agreement with our theoretical model.
[1] J. Deiglmayr et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 101, 133004 (2008)