Collective Dissipative Molecule Formation in a Cavity

Abstract

We propose a mechanism to realize high-yield molecular formation from ultracold atoms. Atom pairs are continuously excited by a laser, and a collective decay into the molecular ground state is induced by a coupling to a lossy cavity mode. Using a combination of analytical and numerical techniques, we demonstrate that the molecular yield can be improved by simply increasing the number of atoms, and can overcome efficiencies of state-of-the-art association schemes. We discuss realistic experimental setups for diatomic polar and nonpolar molecules, opening up collective light matter interactions as a tool for quantum state engineering, enhanced molecule formation, collective dynamics, and cavity mediated chemistry.