A. Vardi et al., THEORY OF RADIATIVE RECOMBINATION WITH STRONG LASER-PULSES AND THE FORMATION OF ULTRACOLD MOLECULES VIA STIMULATED PHOTO-RECOMBINATION OF COLD ATOMS, The Journal of chemical physics, 107(16), 1997, pp. 6166-6174
A time dependent theory for radiative recombination induced by strong
pulses is presented. Analytic solutions in the adiabatic limit are der
ived and found to be in excellent agreement with exact numerical solut
ions. Both the pump-before-dump ''intuitive'' and dump-before-pump ''c
ounter-intuitive'' schemes are considered. Resonantly enhanced two-pho
ton recombination of ultracold atoms is shown to be an efficient mecha
nism for the production of ultracold molecules. We have performed deta
iled calculations on the radiative recombination of cold Na atoms by s
hort laser pulses. Our calculations show that, per pulse, it is possib
le for up to 97% of all head-on Na-Na colliding pairs to end up as v=0
, J=0 translationally cold Na-2 molecules. We show that these findings
, translated to thermally cooled ensemble conditions, mean that the fr
action of Na atoms at mu Kelvin which can be recombined by a pulse of
20 ns duration and 10(8) W/cm(2) peak intensity, to form J=0 molecules
is 6x10(-6) per pulse. With the above parameters, a laser operating a
t 100 Hz can convert half of an ensemble of cold atoms to cold molecul
es in similar to 25 min. The efficiency of the process can be increase
d by going to longer pulses of lower intensity, by going to lower temp
eratures or by increasing the density of the ensemble. In particular,
the ''counter-intuitive'' scheme which allows for use of longer pulses
of lower intensities, with no spontaneous emission losses, considerab
ly increases the yield. (C) 1997 American Institute of Physics.