This dissertation describes two-photon photoassociation to the least-bound vibrational level of the X
1Σg+ electronic ground state of the
86Sr
2 dimer, which represents the first observation of this naturally occurring halo molecule. We measure the binding energy of this state to be
Eb=83.00(7)(20)\,kHz. Using the precise determination of the halo state binding energy and the universal theory for a very weakly-bound state on a potential that asymptotes to a van der Waals form, we determine
s-wave scattering lengths for all strontium isotopes. Our results are consistent with, but substantially more accurate than the previously determined values found from spectroscopic determination of long-range coefficients using other strontium isotopes. With a radial expectation value of
⟨r⟩≈21\,nm the halo state extends well into the classically forbidden region, which results in a large sensitivity of the dimer binding energy to light near-resonant with a bound-bound transition on the metastable
1S0−3P1 potential. This suggests that
86Sr may be a promising candidate for manipulating atomic interactions via optical coupling of the molecular bound states and for probing naturally occurring Efimov states. Furthermore, we observe novel multi-photon spectral loss features due to strong coupling and small detuning of the photoassociation lasers. Numerical simulations of a simple three-level model undergoing a simultaneous two-frequency drive, shows that solutions of the time-dependent Schr\"{o}dinger equation accurately reproduce these additional loss features. A Floquet analysis of this model, yields analytic formulas for predicting the AC Stark shift of the halo molecule. Additionally, we report on the current state and recent modifications of our ultracold neutral strontium apparatus with a particular emphasis on the installation of a
532\,nm optical lattice. Characterization of this laser system and applications are discussed for further investigation of the strontium-
86 halo molecule and additional photoassociation experiments.
The spectra of the high-lying vibrational levels of the
Asp1Sigmasbspu+ and
1sp3Sigmasbspg+ singly excited states of both
sp6rmLisb2 and
sp7rmLisb2 are obtained via photoassociation of colliding ultracold atoms confined in a magneto-optical trap. The least bound state of the
asp3Sigmasbspu+ ground state potential, obtained by two-photon photoassociative spectroscopy, is also presented for both
sp7rmLisb2 and
sp6rmLisb2. The vibrational levels have resolved hyperfine structure, whose relative energy splittings and transition strengths are accurately modeled. The photoassociative spectra are used to precisely determine both the singlet and triplet s-wave scattering lengths for both isotopes, which are important parameters in systems designed to observe quantum degenerate effects and Bose-Einstein condensation.
We perform two-photon photoassociation spectroscopy of the heteronuclear CsYb molecule to measure the binding energies of near-threshold vibrational levels of the $X{\phantom{\rule{3.33333pt}{0ex}}}^{2}{\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Sigma}}}_{1/2}^{+}$ molecular ground state. We report results for
133Cs170Yb,
133Cs173Yb, and
133Cs174Yb, in each case determining the energy of several vibrational levels including the least-bound state. We fit an interaction potential based on electronic structure calculations to the binding energies for all three isotopologs and find that the ground-state potential supports 77 vibrational levels. We use the fitted potential to predict the interspecies
s-wave scattering lengths for all seven Cs+Yb isotopic mixtures.
We report the use of photoassociative spectroscopy to determine the ground-state
s-wave scattering lengths for the main bosonic isotopes of strontium,
86Sr and
88Sr. Photoassociative transitions are driven with a laser red detuned by up to 1400 GHz from the $^{1}S_{0}\mathrm{\text{\ensuremath{-}}}^{1}P_{1}$ atomic resonance at 461 nm. A minimum in the transition amplitude for
86Sr at $\ensuremath{-}494\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}5\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{GHz}$ allows us to determine the scattering lengths
610a0<a86<2300a0 for
86Sr and a much smaller value of $\ensuremath{-}1{a}_{0}<{a}_{88}<13{a}_{0}$ for
88Sr.
We have investigated photoassociation (PA) spectra of ultracold
88Sr atoms near the
5s21S0+5s5p1P1 atomic asymptote. The intensity modulation of the PA lines was used to reconstruct the ground-state scattering wave function, whose last nodal point was determined to be
r0=3.78(18)nm. The PA lines also determined a precise lifetime of the
1P1 state to be
5.263(4)ns.
We report on the state-selective detection of near-dissociation ultracold KRb molecules in the ground $X\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}^{1}\ensuremath{\Sigma}^{+}$ state and the metastable $a\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}^{3}\ensuremath{\Sigma}^{+}$ state. The molecules are produced by photoassociation of ultracold atoms followed by radiative decay into high vibrational levels of the
X and
a states. Detection utilizes resonance-enhanced one-color two-photon ionization, followed by time-of-flight mass spectroscopy. Scanning the detection laser frequency over the range
582−−625nm, we observe transitions from the ${v}^{\ensuremath{''}}=86--92$ levels of the
X state, which are bound by up to $30\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}{\mathrm{cm}}^{\ensuremath{-}1}$, and the ${v}^{\ensuremath{''}}=17--23$ levels of the
a state, which are also bound by up to $30\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}{\mathrm{cm}}^{\ensuremath{-}1}$. The measured vibrational spacings are in excellent agreement with those previously measured and those calculated from the relevant potential curves. Relative vibrational populations are also consistent with Franck-Condon factors for decay from the photoassociated levels.