Observation of Ultracold Ground-State Potassium Molecules
Anguel Nikolov, Edward E. Eyler, X. T. Wang +4 more
Ultracold potassium molecules are produced in the $X^{1}\ensuremath{\Sigma}_{g}^{+}$ electronic ground state by photoassociation in a magneto-optical trap. They are detected sensitively and selectively by use of two-color resonant ionization, followed by time-of-flight mass spectroscopy. We observe deeply bound molecules with $\ensuremath{\nu}\ensuremath{\cong}36$, at a temperature of about $300\ensuremath{\mu}\mathrm{K}$. Presently about 1000 molecules/sec are produced, and much higher production rates should be attainable in the future.
Physical Review Letters•Jan 25, 1999•194 citations