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APS » Journals » Phys. Rev. Lett. » Volume 101 » Issue 4
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Phys. Rev. Lett. 101, 043003 (2008) [4 pages]

Laser-Catalyzed Production of Ultracold Molecules: The 6Li+6Li7Li→ℏω6Li-6Li+7Li Reaction

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Xuan Li* and Gregory A. Parker
Homer L. Dodge Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Oklahoma, USA

Paul Brumer
Chemical Physics Theory Group, Department of Chemistry, University of Toronto, Canada

Ioannis Thanopulos1 and Moshe Shapiro1,2
1Department of Chemistry, The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
2Department of Chemical Physics, The Weizmann Institute, Rehovot, Israel

Received 15 February 2008; published 25 July 2008

We show that by using laser catalysis, we can employ translationally cold (Tr≈1.75  K) collisions to produce ultracold (0.01  mK<Tp<1  mK) (homonuclear) molecules. We illustrate this approach by studying the laser catalysis of the 6Li+6Li7Li→ℏω(6Li6Li7Li)*(14A′′)→ℏω6Li6Li+7Li reaction in the collinear approximation. Ultracold 6Li6Li product molecules are shown to be produced at an extraordinary yield of up to 99.97%, using moderate laser intensities of I=100  kW/cm2-10  MW/cm2.

© 2008 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.101.043003
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevLett.101.043003
PACS:
37.10.Mn, 33.80.−b, 37.10.Pq, 42.50.−p

*li@nhn.ou.edu

 
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