Schedule Mar 15, 2013
Probing the Aftermath of Three-Body Recombination in an Ultracold Atomic Gas
Johannes Denschlag (Ulm Univ.)

Three-body recombination is a prime example of the fundamental interaction between three particles and it is of importance to the physics of ultracold gases.  Here, we provide an experimental study on the population distribution of molecular quantum states after three-body recombination. We utilize a novel detection scheme which combines photoionization of the molecules with subsequent ion trapping. By analyzing the ionization spectrum, we identify the population of energy levels with binding energies up to 750 GHz. We find a broad population of electronic and nuclear spin states and determine a range of populated vibrational and rotational states. The method presented here can be expanded to provide a full survey of the products of the recombination process.


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