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Vacuum-Induced Coherence in Ultracold Photoassociative Ro-Vibrational Excitations

We show that coherence between two excited ro-vibrational states belonging to the same molecular electronic configuration arises quite naturally due to their interaction with electromagnetic vacuum. For initial preparation of a molecule in the desired ro-vibrational states, we propose to employ the method of ultracold photoassociation. Spontaneous decay of the excited molecule then gives rise to vacuum induced coherence between the excited ro-vibrational states. We demonstrate theoretically an interesting interplay of effects due to vacuum induced coherence and photoassociation. We apply our theory to photoassociation of bosonic Ytterbium (^{174}Yb) atoms which appear to be a promising system for exploring such interplay. The effects discussed here can be important for controlling decoherence and dissipation in molecular systems.