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Creation of a molecular condensate by dynamically melting a Mott-insulator

D. Jaksch·V. Venturi·J. I. Cirac·C. J. Williams·P. Zoller
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Abstract

We propose creation of a molecular Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) by loading an atomic BEC into an optical lattice and driving it into a Mott insulator (MI) with exactly two atoms per site. Molecules in a MI state are then created under well defined conditions by photoassociation with essentially unit efficiency. Finally, the MI is melted and a superfluid state of the molecules is created. We study the dynamics of this process and photoassociation of tightly trapped atoms.

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D. Jaksch, V. Venturi, J. I. Cirac, C. J. Williams, P. Zoller. 2002-06-09. Creation of a molecular condensate by dynamically melting a Mott-insulator. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.89.040402

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