"Coherent Control of Ultracold Molecule Formation":
We use frequency-chirped laser light, on the nanosecond timescale, to form ultracold Rb_2 molecules by photoassociation of ultracold atoms. We find that the molecule formation rate is significantly enhanced using positively- versus negatively-chirped light. Numerical simulations indicate that this enhancement is due to an asymmetry in the time ordering of the absorption and stimulated emission processes which lead to ground-state molecule formation. Future experiments on faster time scales will also be discussed