Two photon ionization of condensate atoms

Abstract

The efficient photoionization of a Bose-Einstein condensate requires the creation of ions with the smallest possible transfer of atoms from the condensate into the thermal phase. The spontaneous decay from excited states into atomic states with momentum different from the initial one should be reduced. We investigate theoretically the two-photon ionization of a rubidium condensate using near resonant excitation to the 6P state and second photon at 421 nm or 1002 nm into the continuum. Different ionization schemes with coherent control of the first excitation and reduction of the spontaneous decay are presented.