Microwave coherent control of ultracold ground-state molecules formed by short-range photoassociation

Ji, Zhonghua; Gong, Ting; He, Yonglin; Hutson, Jeremy M.; Zhao, Yanting; Xiao, Liantuan; Jia, Suotang

Abstract

We report the observation of microwave coherent control of rotational states of ultracold 85Rb133Cs molecules formed in their vibronic ground state by short-range photoassociation. Molecules are formed in the single rotational state X(v = 0, J = 1) by exciting pairs of atoms to the short-range state (2)3Π0−(v = 11, J = 0), followed by spontaneous decay. We use depletion spectroscopy to record the dynamic evolution of the population distribution and observe clear Rabi oscillations while irradiating on a microwave transition between coupled neighbouring rotational levels. A density-matrix formalism that accounts for longitudinal and transverse decay times reproduces both the dynamic evolution during the coherent process and the equilibrium population. The coherent control reported here is valuable both for investigating coherent quantum effects and for applications of cold polar molecules produced by continuous short-range photoassociation.

Citation

Ji, Z., Gong, T., He, Y., Hutson, J. M., Zhao, Y., Xiao, L., & Jia, S. (2020). Microwave coherent control of ultracold ground-state molecules formed by short-range photoassociation. Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, 22(23), 13002-13007. https://doi.org/10.1039/d0cp01191f

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: May 25, 2020
• Online Publication Date: May 25, 2020
• Publication Date: Jun 21, 2020
• Deposit Date: Jul 9, 2020
• Publicly Available Date: May 25, 2021
• Journal: Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics
• Print ISSN: 1463-9076
• Electronic ISSN: 1463-9084
• Publisher: Royal Society of Chemistry
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 22
• Issue: 23
• Pages: 13002-13007
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1039/d0cp01191f