Suppressing the weakly bound states in the photoassociation dynamics by using a frequency cut-off laser pulse

The photoassociation dynamics of ultracold lithium atoms controlled by a cut-off pulse has been investigated theoretically by solving numerically the time-dependent Schrödinger equation using the mapped Fourier grid method. The frequency components of the laser pulse close to the atomic resonance are partly cut off. Compared with the typical Gauss-type pulses, the cut-off pulse is helpful to suppress efficiently the weakly bound states and prepare the associated molecules in the lower vibrational states. Especially, the dependence of photoassociation probability on the cut-off position of the laser pulse is explored. (atomic and molecular physics)