Publication Date:
2020-09-24
Description:
Ultracold single molecules have wide-spread potential applications, such as ultracold chemistry, precision measurements, quantum simulation and computation. However due to difficulty in full control of a complex atom-molecule system, the coherent formation of single molecules remains a challenge. Here we report an alternative route to coherently bind two atoms into a weakly bound molecule at MHz levels via coupling atomic spins to their two-body relative motion in a strongly focused laser with inherent polarization gradients. The coherent nature is demonstrated by long-lived atom-molecule Rabi oscillations. We further manipulate the motional levels of the molecules and measure the binding energy precisely. Our work opens the door to full control of all degrees of freedom in atom-molecule systems.
Print ISSN:
0036-8075
Electronic ISSN:
1095-9203
Topics:
Biology
,
Chemistry and Pharmacology
,
Computer Science
,
Medicine
,
Natural Sciences in General
,
Physics
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