Formation of ultracold LiRb molecules by photoassociation near the Li(2 s 2 S 1/2 ) + Rb(5 p 2 P 1/2 ) asymptote
Sourav Dutta, Daniel S. Elliott, Yong P. Chen
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.
arXiv:1311.6361•Europhysics Letters (EPL)•Dec 1, 2013•20 citations