Abstract

Recently, we observed1 that the presence of ultracold excited state cesium causes a dramatic increase of the photoassociative ionization (PAI) rate (see Fig. 1) of ultracold sodium atoms when both vapors were simultaneously trapped in a magneto-optical trap (MOT). These observations represent the first direct proof that collisional processes involving more than two particles can and do play an important role in the MOT.

© 1997 Optical Society of America