Erlangen 2018 – scientific programme
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MO: Fachverband Molekülphysik
MO 17: Posters 2: Cold Molecules and Clusters
MO 17.16: Poster
Wednesday, March 7, 2018, 16:15–18:15, Orangerie
Theory of photoassociation processes of alkali metal clusters — •Jan Schnabel1,2 and Andreas Köhn1,2 — 1Institut für Theoretische Chemie, Universität Stuttgart — 2Center for Integrated Quantum Science and Technology
Understanding molecular binding mechanisms on a fundamental level and creating molecules in exactly defined quantum states are major goals in the growing area of ultracold chemistry. An important method to produce ultracold molecules is photoassociation which has been demonstrated for Rb dimers in [1,2]. At the same time an experimental realization of higher associated clusters succeeded so far only with alkali metal atoms formed on helium droplets [3]. An encouraging approach for preparing isolated Rb3 combines photoassociation with cavity QED allowing for non-destructive detection of ultracold molecules.
We use ab-initio calculations to investigate possible states, transitions and spin-orbit couplings to propose a realistic photoassociation scheme for realizing spin-polarized Rb3 clusters. To this end we construct potential energy surfaces of excited states applying a general interpolation method within the framework of RKHS (reproducing kernel Hilbert space) theory. Moreover we analyze long-range interactions between Rb2 and Rb as well as the vibrational levels of some trimer states.
[1] J. Hecker Denschlag, Phys. Rev. A 82, 052514 (2010)
[2] J. Hecker Denschlag, Phys. Rev. A 95, 062507 (2017)
[3] W.E. Ernst, J. Chem. Phys. 45, 114501 (2008)