Coherent Optical Creation of a Single Molecule

We report coherent association of atoms into a single weakly bound NaCs molecule in an optical tweezer through Raman transition. The technique uses deeply electronic excited intermediate state to achieve large transition dipole moment while reducing photon scattering. Starting from two their relative motional ground state, we transfer efficiency 69%. molecules have binding energy 770.2 MHz at 8.83(2) G. This does not rely on Feshbach resonances or narrow excited-state lines and may allow wide range molecular species be assembled atom by atom.1 MoreReceived 17 December 2020Revised 11 May 2021Accepted 12 July 2021DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevX.11.031061Published the American Physical Society under terms Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution this work must maintain attribution author(s) published article’s title, journal citation, DOI.Published SocietyPhysics Subject Headings (PhySH)Research AreasCold ultracold moleculesUltracold collisionsPhysical SystemsAtomsMoleculesTechniquesCoherent controlOptical tweezersAtomic, Molecular & Optical