Creating ground state molecules with optical feshbach resonances in tight traps.

We propose to create ultracold ground state molecules in an atomic Bose-Einstein condensate by adiabatic crossing of an optical Feshbach resonance. We envision a scheme where the laser intensity and possibly also frequency are linearly ramped over the resonance. Our calculations for (87)Rb show that for sufficiently tight traps it is possible to avoid spontaneous emission while retaining adiabaticity, and conversion efficiencies of up to 50% can be expected.

Mapped grid methods for long-range molecules and cold collisions.

The paper discusses ways of improving the accuracy of numerical calculations for vibrational levels of diatomic molecules close to the dissociation limit or for ultracold collisions, in the framework of a grid representation. In order to avoid the implementation of very large grids, Kokoouline et al. [J.

Resonant coupling in the formation of ultracold ground state molecules via photoassociation.

We demonstrate the existence of a new mechanism for the formation of ultracold molecules via photoassociation of cold cesium atoms. The experimental results, interpreted with numerical calculations, suggest that a resonant coupling between vibrational levels of the 0+u (6s+6p1/2) and (6s+6p3/2) states enables formation of ultracold molecules in vibrational levels of the ground state well below the 6s+6s dissociation limit. Such a scheme should be observable with many other electronic states and atomic species.

Spectroscopy and Lifetimes of the 1(2)Piu State of Na+2: A New Comparison between Theory and Experiment.

A detailed theoretical study of the spectroscopy of the 1(2)Piu state of Na+2 is presented, including the determination of Dunham coefficients from recent effective potential calculations of the Na+2 molecular potential curves. We emphasize the discrepancies existing among several experiments and among several theoretical models available in the literature. The radiative lifetime of the rovibrational levels of the 1(2)Piu state are also computed and are found in agreement within 20% with experiment.