Dynamics of Photoinduced Collisions of Cold Atoms Probed with Picosecond Laser Pulses

Published

September 1, 2001

Author(s)

F K. Fatemi, Kevin Jones, H Wang, I Walmsley, Paul D. Lett

Abstract

Pump-probe experiments are performed in which cold colliding Na atoms are photoassociated to form Na$ _(2)$ molecules, and subsequently ionized. the experiments are performed in a regime where the pulsed photoassociation to an intermediate potential takes place at long range and to several electronic, vibrational and rotational states. A probe pulse then produces an ionization signal by further exciting these molecules to autoionizing doubly-excited states. The time-dependence of the ion signal shows a dramatic flux-enhancement effect due to the motion on the intermediate potentials. This time dependence can be viewed as monitoring the inward motion and dephasing of a population wavepacket formed at long range.

Citation

Physical Review A (Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics)

Volume

64

Issue

No. 3

Pub Type

Journals

Keywords

atomic collisions, collision dynamics, laser cooling, photoassociation, photoionization, pulsed photoassociation

Citation

Fatemi, F. , Jones, K. , Wang, H. , Walmsley, I. and Lett, P. (2001), Dynamics of Photoinduced Collisions of Cold Atoms Probed with Picosecond Laser Pulses, Physical Review A (Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics) (Accessed October 10, 2025)