E. R. I. Abraham

Photoassociative spectroscopy of long‐range states of ultracold 6Li2 and 7Li2

We have obtained spectra of the high‐lying vibrational levels of the A1Σu+ and 13Σg+states of both 6Li2 and 7Li2 via photoassociation of colliding ultracold atoms confined to a magneto‐optical trap. Because of the low collision energies (∼1 mK), very high spectroscopic resolution is realized, and sensitivity is greatest for the usually difficult to access long‐range states. Binding energies relative to the center of gravity of the resolved hyperfine structure are given for the A1Σu+ vibrational levels v =62–88 for 6Li2 and v=65–97 for 7Li2, and the 13Σg+ vibrational levels v=56–84 for 6Li2 and v=62–90 for 7Li2. These are extremely long‐range levels with outer classical turning points ranging from 25 a0 to 220 a0, where a0 is the Bohr radius. The spectra arise mainly from s‐wave collisions, and therefore exhibit little rotational structure.

Vortices in Bose-Einstein condensates confined in a multiply connected Laguerre-Gaussian optical trap

The quantized vortex state is investigated in a Bose-Einstein condensate, confined in a multiply connected geometry formed by a Laguerre-Gaussian optical trap. Solving the Gross-Pitaevskii equation variationally, we show that the criterion for vortex stability is that the interatomic interaction strength must exceed a critical interaction strength. The time evolution of a freely expanding Laguerre-Gaussian condensate with a vortex is calculated and used to derive the interference pattern of such a condensate overlapping with a parabolically trapped condensate.

Confinement of ultracold atoms in a Laguerre–Gaussian laser beam created with diffractive optics

Abstract We report 2D confinement of 87Rb atoms in a Laguerre–Gaussian laser beam. Changing of the sign of the detuning from the atomic resonance dramatically alters the geometry of the confinement. With the laser detuned to the blue, the atoms are confined to the dark, central node of the Laguerre–Gaussian laser mode. This trapping method leads to low ac Stark shifts to the atomic levels. Alternatively, by detuning the laser to the red of the resonance, we confine atoms to the high intensity outer ring in a multiply-connected, toroidal configuration. We model the confined atoms to determine azimuthal intensity variations of the trapping laser, caused by slight misalignments of the Laguerre–Gaussian mode generating optics.

Observation of Deeply-Bound

We demonstrate Feshbach optimized photoassociation (FOPA) into the

^{85}

0_{g}^{-} (5

Rb

S

_{2}

_{1/2}+5

Vibrational Levels Using Feshbach Optimized Photoassociation

P

A clip-on Zeeman slower using toroidal permanent magnets.

_{1/2}

Creation of cold nitric oxide by extraction of the cold fraction of a thermal distribution

) state in