Description:

Title: Experiments in LiRb: Progress towards a new high-density, ultra-cold, ground-state dipolar system

Speaker: Dan Elliot, Purdue University

Abstract: Ultra-cold polar molecules are expected to provide an extraordinary platform for future studies of many-body physics, quantum logic, quantum chemistry, low-temperature collisions, and precision measurements of fundamental constants. Most of these applications require clouds of molecules at very high density and low temperature. In this talk, we will discuss our experimental studies of the simple, diatomic, polar system 7Li85Rb. We generate these molecules through photoassociation of atomic Li and Rb, which we trap in a dual species magneto-optical trap. We have explored many of the low-lying electronic states of this system, and identified several pathways for generating large numbers of these molecules in the lowest ro-vibrational level of the electronic ground state, as well is the lowest energy triplet state. We will discuss these projects and future directions in this talk.

Host: Brian Odom

Keywords: Physics, Astronomy, AMO