PHOTOASSOCIATION AS A PROBE OF FESHBACH RESONANCES IN COLD-ATOM SCATTERING

We investigate theoretically the influence of magnetically tunable Fes hbach collision resonances on the photoassociation spectra of ultracol d atoms. As an example we consider recently predicted resonances for R b-85 atoms. For excitation to the Rb-85(2) O-g(-)(S-1/2+P-1/2) electro nic state, we predict that the photoassociation rate is resonantly enh anced by at least two orders of magnitude. We find that photoassociati on could serve as a useful probe with which to study Feshbach resonanc es in ultracold collisions. In turn, these resonances should be very i mportant to Pose-condensed gases, and more generally, to coherent atom optics.