Adiabatic association of weekly bound molecules through confinement induced resonances

The creation and manipulation of weakly bound diatomic molecules is a central goal in ultracold atomic physics, offering opportunities for exploring novel quantum phenomena and precision measurements. This work investigates the use of confinement-induced resonances (CIRs) in optical lattices or other trapping potentials as a versatile tool for creating such molecules. We examine collisions between two different atomic species confined to interact in a quasi-1D system. The two species experience different confinement potentials leading to multiple scattering resonances corresponding to bound states attached to excited modes in the center of mass motion. The resulting 1D scattering length is then used to predict the full spectrum of the 2-body system in the presence of weak missmatched trapping in the remaining motional direction. We then develop a pathway for producing weakly bound diatomic molecules starting from the non-interacting state by adiabatically ramping from weaker to stronger trapping in the tightly confine direction. Our findings suggest that CIRs provide a powerful and flexible method for creating and controlling weakly bound diatomic molecules.