Efficient Formation of Ultracold Molecules with Chirped Nanosecond Pulses

We describe experiments and associated quantum simulations involving the production of ultracold ⁸⁷Rb₂ molecules with nanosecond pulses of frequency-chirped light. With appropriate chirp parameters, the formation is dominated by coherent processes. For a positive chirp, excited molecules are produced by photoassociation early in the chirp, and then transferred into high vibrational levels of the lowest triplet state by stimulated emission later in the chirp. Generally good agreement is seen between the data and the simulations. Shaping of the chirp can lead to a significant enhancement of the formation rate. Further improvements using higher intensities and different intermediate states are predicted.