| Issue |
Europhys. Lett.
Volume 72, Number 4, November 2005
|
|
|---|---|---|
| Page(s) | 548 - 554 | |
| Section | Atomic and molecular physics | |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1209/epl/i2005-10275-y | |
| Published online | 14 October 2005 | |
Frequency shifts of photoassociative spectra of ultracold metastable helium atoms:
A new measurement of the 
-wave scattering length
Ecole Normale Supérieure and Collège de France, Laboratoire Kastler Brossel 24 rue Lhomond, 75231 Paris Cedex 05, France
Received:
26
July
2005
Accepted:
20
September
2005
We observe light-induced frequency shifts in one-color
photoassociative spectra of magnetically trapped
atoms in the metastable 
state. A pair of ultracold spin-polarized
helium atoms is excited into a molecular bound state in the purely
long-range 
potential connected to the
-
asymptote. The shift
arises from the optical coupling of the molecular excited bound state
with the scattering states and the bound states of two colliding
atoms. We measure the frequency-shifts for
several ro-vibrational levels in the 
potential and find a
linear dependence on the photoassociation laser intensity. Comparison
with a theoretical analysis provides a good indication for the
s-wave scattering length a of the quintet (
)
potential, 
, which is significantly lower than
most previous results obtained by non-spectroscopic methods.
PACS: 32.80.Pj – Optical cooling of atoms; trapping / 33.20.Ea – Infrared spectra / 34.20.Cf – Interatomic potentials and forces
© EDP Sciences, 2005
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