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arXiv:1606.03120 · Physical Review A

Photoassociative production of ultracold heteronuclear YbLi* molecules

Richard Roy, Rajendra K. Shrestha, Alaina Green, Subhadeep Gupta, Ming Li, Svetlana Kotochigova, Alexander N. Petrov, Chi Hong Yuen

Published Sep 14, 2016• 32 citations
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Abstract

We report on the production of ultracold heteronuclear YbLi* molecules in a dual-species magneto-optical trap by photoassociation (PA). The formation of the electronically excited molecules close to dissociation was observed by trap loss spectroscopy. We find 4 rovibrational states within a range of $250\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}\mathrm{GHz}$ below the $\mathrm{Yb}(^{1}S_{0})+\mathrm{Li}(^{2}P_{1/2})$ asymptote and observe isotopic PA line shifts in mixtures of $^{6}\mathrm{Li}$ with $^{174}\mathrm{Yb}$, $^{172}\mathrm{Yb}$, and $^{176}\mathrm{Yb}$. We also describe our theoretical ab initio calculation for the relevant electronic potentials and utilize it to analyze and identify the lines in the experimentally observed spectrum.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.94.033413

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The Journal of Chemical Physics•May 2, 2018•13 citations
We report on the production of ultracold heteronuclear YbLi* molecules in a dual-species magneto-optical trap by photoassociation (PA). The formation of the electronically excited molecules close to dissociation was observed by trap loss spectroscopy. We find 4 rovibrational states within a range of 250GHz250\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}\mathrm{GHz}250GHz below the Yb(1S0)+Li(2P1/2)\mathrm{Yb}(^{1}S_{0})+\mathrm{Li}(^{2}P_{1/2})Yb(1S0​)+Li(2P1/2​) asymptote and observe isotopic PA line shifts in mixtures of 6Li^{6}\mathrm{Li}6Li with 174Yb^{174}\mathrm{Yb}174Yb, 172Yb^{172}\mathrm{Yb}172Yb, and 176Yb^{176}\mathrm{Yb}176Yb. We also describe our theoretical ab initio calculation for the relevant electronic potentials and utilize it to analyze and identify the lines in the experimentally observed spectrum.
We have produced ultracold heteronuclear ${\text{YbRb}}^{\ensuremath{\ast}}$ molecules in a combined magneto-optical trap by photoassociation. The formation of electronically excited molecules close to the dissociation limit was observed by the trap loss spectroscopy in mixtures of 87Rb^{87}\text{R}\text{b}87Rb with 174Yb^{174}\text{Y}\text{b}174Yb and 176Yb^{176}\text{Y}\text{b}176Yb. The molecules could be prepared in well-defined rovibrational levels, allowing for an experimental determination of the long-range potential in the electronically excited state.
We report the production of ultracold heteronuclear 7Li85Rb^{7}\mathrm{Li}^{85}\mathrm{Rb}7Li85Rb molecules in excited electronic states by photoassociation (PA) of ultracold 7Li^{7}\mathrm{Li}7Li and 85Rb^{85}\mathrm{Rb}85Rb atoms. PA is performed in a dual-species 7Li^{7}\mathrm{Li}7Li-85Rb^{85}\mathrm{Rb}85Rb magneto-optical trap (MOT) and the PA resonances are detected using trap loss spectroscopy. We identify several strong PA resonances below the Li (2sss 2{}^{2}2S1/2{S}_{1/2}S1/2​) + Rb (5ppp 2P3/2{}^{2}{P}_{3/2}2P3/2​) asymptote and experimentally determine the long range C6{C}_{6}C6​ dispersion coefficients. We find a molecule formation rate (PLiRb{P}_{\mathrm{LiRb}}PLiRb​) of 3.5 \ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{} 107{}^{7}7 s${}^{\ensuremath{-}1}$ and a PA rate coefficient (KPA{K}_{\mathrm{PA}}KPA​) of 1.3 \ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{} 10${}^{\ensuremath{-}10}$ cm3{}^{3}3/s, the highest among heteronuclear bi-alkali-metal molecules. At large PA laser intensity we observe the saturation of the PA rate coefficient (KPA{K}_{\mathrm{PA}}KPA​) close to the theoretical value at the unitarity limit.
We report the production of ultracold heteronuclear Cs∗Yb{\mathrm{Cs}}^{*}\mathrm{Yb}Cs∗Yb molecules through one-photon photoassociation applied to an ultracold atomic mixture of Cs and Yb confined in an optical dipole trap. We use trap-loss spectroscopy to detect molecular states below the Cs(2P1/2)+Yb(1S0)\mathrm{Cs}\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}(^{2}P_{1/2})+\mathrm{Yb}(^{1}S_{0})Cs(2P1/2​)+Yb(1S0​) asymptote. For 133Cs174Yb^{133}\mathrm{Cs}\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}^{174}\mathrm{Yb}133Cs174Yb, we observe 13 rovibrational states with binding energies up to $\ensuremath{\sim}500\phantom{\rule{0.28em}{0ex}}\mathrm{GHz}$. For each rovibrational state we observe two resonances associated with the Cs hyperfine structure and show that the hyperfine splitting in the diatomic molecule decreases for more deeply bound states. In addition, we produce ultracold fermionic 133Cs173Yb^{133}\mathrm{Cs}\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}^{173}\mathrm{Yb}133Cs173Yb and bosonic 133Cs172Yb^{133}\mathrm{Cs}\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}^{172}\mathrm{Yb}133Cs172Yb and 133Cs170Yb^{133}\mathrm{Cs}\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}^{170}\mathrm{Yb}133Cs170Yb molecules. From mass scaling, we determine the number of vibrational levels supported by the 2(1/2) excited-state potential to be 154 or 155.
We investigate the formation of weakly bound, electronically excited, heteronuclear 6 Li 40 K * molecules by single-photon photoassociation in a magneto-optical trap. We performed trap loss spectroscopy within a range of 325 GHz below the Li(2 S 1/2 )+K(4 P 3/2 ) and Li(2 S 1/2 )+K(4 P 1/2 ) asymptotic states and observed more than 60 resonances, which we identify as rovibrational levels of 7 of 8 attractive long-range molecular potentials. The long-range dispersion coefficients and rotational constants are derived. We find large molecule formation rates of up to ∼3.5 × 10 7 s − 1 , which are shown to be comparable to those for homonuclear 40 K 2 * . Using a theoretical model we infer decay rates to the deeply bound electronic ground-state vibrational level X 1 Σ + ( v '=3) of ∼5 × 10 4 s −1 . Our results pave the way for the production of ultracold bosonic ground-state 6 Li 40 K molecules which exhibit a large intrinsic permanent electric dipole moment.
We report the production of ultracold 7 Li 85 Rb molecules by photoassociation (PA) below the Li (2 s 2 S 1/2 ) + Rb(5 p 2 P 1/2 ) asymptote. We perform PA spectroscopy in a dual-species 7 Li- 85 Rb magneto-optical trap (MOT) and detect the PA resonances using trap loss spectroscopy. We observe several strong PA resonances corresponding to the last few bound states, assign the lines and derive the long-range C 6 dispersion coefficients for the Li (2 s 2 S 1/2 ) + Rb(5 p 2 P 1/2 ) asymptote. We also report an excited-state molecule formation rate of and a PA rate coefficient of , which are both among the highest observed for heteronuclear bi-alkali molecules. These suggest that PA is a promising route for the creation of ultracold ground-state LiRb molecules.
We report on the production of ultracold heteronuclear NaCs* molecules in a dual-species magneto-optical trap through photoassociation. The electronically excited molecules are formed below the Na (3S1/2) + Cs (6P1/2) dissociation limit. 12 resonance lines are detected using trap-loss spectroscopy based on a highly sensitive modulation technique. The highest observed rovibrational level exhibits clear hyperfine structure, which is detected for the first time. This structure is simulated within a simplified model consisting of 4 coupled levels belonging to the initially unperturbed Hund’s case “a” electronic states, which have been explored in our previous work that dealt with the Na (3S1/2) + Cs (6P3/2) asymptote [W. Liu et al., Phys. Rev. A 94, 032518 (2016)].