Investigation of ultracold atoms and molecules in a dark magneto-optical trap

Abstract

In this paper, ultracold atoms and molecules in a dark magneto-optical trap (MOT) are studied via depumping the cesium cold atoms into the dark hyperfine ground state. The collision rate is reduced to 0.45 s−1 and the density of the atoms is increased to 5.6 × 1011 cm−3 when the fractional population of the atoms in the bright hyperfine ground state is as low as 0.15. The vibrational spectra of the ultracold cesium molecules are also studied in a standard MOT and in a dark MOT separately. The experimental results are analyzed by using the perturbative quantum approach.