The coherent effect of chirped femtosecond laser pulses on the formation of ultracold molecules in a magneto-optical trap

We have investigated how the formation of ultracold molecules in a rubidium magneto-optical trap is affected by the application of positively-chirped femtosecond laser pulses. The application of femtosecond pulses resulted in a reduction, rather than an increase, in the rate of detection of ⁸⁵Rb₂ and ⁸⁷Rb₂ triplet ground-state molecules, and compared this to the effects of non-chirped pulses, continuous-wave light, and the formation rate when no additional light was applied. A dependence on the amount of chirp of the femtosecond laser pulses suggests that the reduction in the molecular signal is the result of a coherent effect, and provides a promising indication that coherent control could be used to engineer the production of ultracold molecules.