Spectra of molecular gases trapped in deep optical lattices

P. F. Barker, S. M. Purcell, M. N. Shneider

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

9 Scopus citations

Abstract

We study the spectral profile of Rayleigh scattered light from molecular species trapped in optical lattices created by strong fields in the 1016 W m-2 range. We show that, for lattices with well depths on the order of 100 K, the motional sidebands imparted on spectra are shifted from the central Dicke-narrowed Rayleigh peak by hundreds of MHz. Our calculations for these short duration (30 ns) lattices show that these spectral features appear even in room temperature gases suggesting a new technique for measuring gas composition based on the frequency offset of the sidebands. Finally, we study the role of field-induced molecular alignment within the lattice and calculate its effect on the shape and position of the sidebands.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number063409
JournalPhysical Review A - Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics
Volume77
Issue number6
DOIs
StatePublished - Jun 9 2008

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics

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