TY - JOUR
KW - pfc
AU - S. Ospelkaus
AU - K.-K. Ni
AU - Goulven Quéméner
AU - B. Neyenhuis
AU - D. Wang
AU - M. de Miranda
AU - John Bohn
AU - Jun Ye
AU - Deborah Jin
AB - We report the preparation of a rovibronic ground-state molecular quantum gas in a single hyperfine state and, in particular, the absolute lowest quantum state. This addresses the last internal degree of freedom remaining after the recent production of a near quantum degenerate gas of molecules in their rovibronic ground state, and provides a crucial step towards full control over molecular quantum gases. We demonstrate a scheme that is general for bialkali polar molecules and allows the preparation of molecules in a single hyperfine state or in an arbitrary coherent superposition of hyperfine states. The scheme relies on electric-dipole, two-photon microwave transitions through rotationally excited states and makes use of electric nuclear quadrupole interactions to transfer molecular population between different hyperfine states.
BT - Physical Review Letters
DA - 2010-01
DO - 10.1103/PhysRevLett.104.030402
N2 - We report the preparation of a rovibronic ground-state molecular quantum gas in a single hyperfine state and, in particular, the absolute lowest quantum state. This addresses the last internal degree of freedom remaining after the recent production of a near quantum degenerate gas of molecules in their rovibronic ground state, and provides a crucial step towards full control over molecular quantum gases. We demonstrate a scheme that is general for bialkali polar molecules and allows the preparation of molecules in a single hyperfine state or in an arbitrary coherent superposition of hyperfine states. The scheme relies on electric-dipole, two-photon microwave transitions through rotationally excited states and makes use of electric nuclear quadrupole interactions to transfer molecular population between different hyperfine states.
PY - 2010
EP - 030402
T2 - Physical Review Letters
TI - Controlling the Hyperfine State of Rovibronic Ground-State Polar Molecules
VL - 104
SN - 0031-9007
ER -