Influence of a tight isotropic harmonic trap on photoassociation in ultracold homonuclear alkali-metal gases
- AG Moderne Optik, Institut fuer Physik, Humboldt-Universitaet zu Berlin, Hausvogteiplatz 5-7, 10117 Berlin (Germany)
The influence of a tight isotropic harmonic trap on photoassociation of two ultracold alkali-metal atoms forming a homonuclear diatomic is investigated using realistic atomic interaction potentials. Confinement of the initial atom pair due to the trap leads to a uniform strong enhancement of the photoassociation rate to most, but also to a strongly suppressed rate for some final states. Thus tighter traps do not necessarily enhance the photoassociation rate. A further massive enhancement of the rate is found for strong interatomic interaction potentials. The details of this interaction play a minor role, except for large repulsive interactions for which a sharp window occurs in the photoassociation spectrum as is known from the trap-free case. A comparison with simplified models describing the atomic interaction like the pseudopotential approximation shows that they often provide reasonable estimates for the trap-induced enhancement of the photoassociation rate even if the predicted rates can be completely erroneous.
- OSTI ID:
- 21011428
- Journal Information:
- Physical Review. A, Vol. 76, Issue 2; Other Information: DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevA.76.022704; (c) 2007 The American Physical Society; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 1050-2947
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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