Spatial-spectral distribution of Rabi radiation generated in plasma.

We report observation and control of the spatial-spectral distributions of coherent, dynamic Rabi sideband radiation. The Rabi sidebands result from the interaction of a shaped picosecond probe laser of intensity 10(10) W cm(-2), with neutral excited atomic oxygen generated in a laser-induced microplasma. The spatial-spectral distribution is measured and compared for picosecond laser pulses having either an asymmetric temporal shape or a Gaussian temporal shape. The resulting spatial-spectral distributions are in quantitative agreement with theoretical predictions that account for the radial intensity distribution of the picosecond probe pulse.

Origin of the spectral coherence in dynamically broadened Rabi sidebands.

We demonstrate the coherent nature of dynamic Rabi-shifted sidebands arising when a picosecond probe laser interacts with a weakly ionized laser-generated microplasma. The coherence is manifested as spectral fringes observed in the sideband spectra. A model is presented that quantitatively predicts both the spectral phase and the spectral interference measured in the sidebands.

Coherent transients in the femtosecond photoassociation of ultracold molecules.

We demonstrate the photoassociation of ultracold rubidium dimers using coherent femtosecond pulses. Starting from a cloud of ultracold rubidium atoms, electronically excited rubidium molecules are formed with shaped photoassociation pump pulses. The excited state molecules are projected with a time-delayed probe pulse onto molecular ion states which are detected in a mass spectrometer. Coherent transient oscillations of the excited state population are observed in the wings of the pump pulse, in agreement with the time-dependent solution of the Schrödinger equation of the excitation process.