Laser-Catalyzed Production of Ultracold Molecules: TheLi6+Li6Li7→

We show that by using laser catalysis, we can employ translationally cold (${T}_{r}\ensuremath{\approx}1.75\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{K}$) collisions to produce ultracold ($0.01\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{mK}<{T}_{p}<1\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{mK}$) (homonuclear) molecules. We illustrate this approach by studying the laser catalysis of the $^{6}\mathrm{Li}+^{6}\mathrm{Li}^{7}\mathrm{Li}\stackrel{\ensuremath{\hbar}\ensuremath{\omega}}{\ensuremath{\rightarrow}}(^{6}\mathrm{Li}^{6}\mathrm{Li}^{7}\mathrm{Li}{)}^{*}({1}^{4}{A}^{\ensuremath{'}\ensuremath{'}})\stackrel{\ensuremath{\hbar}\ensuremath{\omega}}{\ensuremath{\rightarrow}}^{6}\mathrm{Li}^{6}\mathrm{Li}+^{7}\mathrm{Li}$ reaction in the collinear approximation. Ultracold $^{6}\mathrm{Li}^{6}\mathrm{Li}$ product molecules are shown to be produced at an extraordinary yield of up to 99.97%, using moderate laser intensities of $I=100\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{kW}/{\mathrm{cm}}^{2}\ensuremath{-}10\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{MW}/{\mathrm{cm}}^{2}$.