Abstract
We have observed a stimulated Raman resonance between free and bound molecular states of atoms in a Bose-condensed gas. In our experiment, we first produce a Bose-condensed cloud containing about 5 × 105 87Rb 52S1/2(f = 1, mf = −1) atoms in a magnetic “TOP” trap, with a typical condensate fraction of about 20%. We then illuminate the atoms with a τ = 10 ms duration pulse of light from two laser beams 1 and 2 of frequency v, and v2, and intensities I1 = 120 W/cm2 and I2 = 2.2 W/cm2, respectively, as shown in Fig. 1. The frequency v1 is fixed on the peak of the photoassociation transition which couples free pair states |f〉 of the atoms to an electronically excited 8/Rb2 bound level . The frequency difference Δ = v2 − v1 is established by an acousto-optical modulator. The light pulse induces strong losses of atoms from the cloud, due to spontaneous emission from level |e〉 back to hot atoms. We measure the fraction of atoms N(τ)/N0 remaining after the 10 ms pulse with laser-induced fluorescence. A typical plot of this signal as a function of Δ is shown in Fig. 2.
© 1999 Optical Society of America
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