Arne Härter, Artjom Krükow, Markus Deiß, Björn Drews, Eberhard Tiemann, Johannes Hecker Denschlag
Three-body recombination is a prime example of the fundamental interaction between three particles and it is of importance to the physics of ultracold gases. Due to the complexity of this process it has resisted a comprehensive theoretical description. Experimental investigations have mainly focussed on the observation of corresponding loss rates without revealing information on the reaction products. Here, we provide the first general experimental study on the population distribution of molecular quantum states after three-body recombination. We utilize a novel detection scheme which combines photoionization of the molecules with subsequent ion trapping. By analyzing the ionization spectrum, we identify the population of energy levels with binding energies up to $h\times750$ GHz. We find a broad population of electronic and nuclear spin states and determine a range of populated vibrational and rotational states. The method presented here can be expanded to provide a full survey of the products of the recombination process. This may be pivotal in developing an in-depth model of the underlying three-body dynamics.
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http://arxiv.org/abs/1301.5518
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