Observation of cold Rb2molecules trapped in an optical dipole trap using a laser-pulse-train technique

Abstract

In this work, we have developed and characterized a laser-pulse-train technique to observe cold Rb${}_{2}$ molecules trapped in an optical dipole trap. The molecules are produced in a magneto-optical trap, and then loaded into a crossed optical dipole trap. The time evolution of the molecular population is obtained by applying a laser pulse train, which photoionizes the ground-state molecules through intermediate molecular bands. Our results show that this technique allows us to obtain a faster data acquisition rate of the time evolution of the molecule population than other techniques.