Hannover 2016 – scientific programme

Parts | Days | Selection | Search | Updates | Downloads | Help

A: Fachverband Atomphysik

A 23: Ultra-cold atoms, ions and BEC I (with Q)

A 23.7: Talk

Wednesday, March 2, 2016, 12:30–12:45, f107

Molecular ion formation in atom-ion three body recombination — •Amir Mohammadi, Artjom Krükow, Joschka Wolf, Amir Mahdian, and Johannes Hecker Denschlag — Universität Ulm, Institut für Quantenmaterie, Albert-Einstein-Allee 45, D-89069 Ulm, Deutschland

Producing transitionally and internally cold molecular ions is one of the challenges and long standing goals in cold atom-ion experiments. One good strategy for this purpose is creating initially cold molecular ions by associating cold ions and cold atoms. In our hybrid atom-ion experiment, we investigate the interaction of a laser-cooled trapped ¹³⁸Ba ion with an ultracold cloud of ⁸⁷Rb atoms. At very low kinetic energies (i.e. sub-mK) and densities of 10¹² cm⁻³, three-body atom-atom-ion recombination is the dominant reaction process in our experiment[1]. It has been predicted [2] that a weakly bound BaRb⁺ ion should be the dominant molecular product. In this talk, we indeed report on the first experimental observation of these molecules after three-body recombination. Furthermore, we discuss the effects of secondary and ternary collisions of BaRb⁺ with cold Rb atoms.

[1] A. Krükow et al., arXiv:1510.04938 (2015)

[2] J.Pérez-Rios and C.H. Greene, The journal of Chemical Physics 143, 041105 (2015)