Ultrafast photoassociation of ultracold ion-pair molecules

Research Project

Project/Area Number	25810014
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
Allocation Type	Multi-year Fund
Research Field	Physical chemistry
Research Institution	Institute for Molecular Science
Principal Investigator	TAKEI Nobuyuki 分子科学研究所, 光分子科学研究領域, 助教 (20531841)
Project Period (FY)	2013-04-01 – 2015-03-31
Project Status	Completed (Fiscal Year 2014)
Budget Amount *help	¥3,640,000 (Direct Cost: ¥2,800,000、Indirect Cost: ¥840,000) Fiscal Year 2014: ¥1,040,000 (Direct Cost: ¥800,000、Indirect Cost: ¥240,000) Fiscal Year 2013: ¥2,600,000 (Direct Cost: ¥2,000,000、Indirect Cost: ¥600,000)
Keywords	光会合 / 量子光学 / 冷却原子 / レーザー冷却 / コヒーレント制御
Outline of Final Research Achievements	We have succeeded in preparing the experimental setup for real-time observation and control of wave-packet dynamics excited in the ion-pair molecules which are formed through ultrafast photoassociation of laser-cooled rubidium atoms. In order to improve the efficiency of the photoassociation process, we introduced an optical dipole trap of atoms so that the density of the atomic ensemble was successfully increased by two-orders of magnitude compared to that in the previously-used magneto-optical trap. We developed a timing control system to synchronize the loading and cooling sequence of atoms with the irradiation timing of ps laser pulses which excite the wave-packets. We also developed an ion detection system with high efficiency to observe the wave-packet dynamics through the ionization of the wave-packet using another ps probe pulses.