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arXiv:physics/0410030 · Physical Review Letters

Photoassociative Spectroscopy at Long Range in Ultracold Strontium

Sarah Nagel, Pascal G. Mickelson, A. D. Saenz, Y. N. Martinez, Ying-Cheng Chen, T. C. Killian, Philippe Pellegrini, Robin Côté

Published Mar 3, 2005• 69 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

We report photoassociative spectroscopy of ${^{88}\mathrm{S}\mathrm{r}}_{2}$ in a magneto-optical trap operating on the $^{1}S_{0}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}^{3}P_{1}$ intercombination line at 689 nm. Photoassociative transitions are driven with a laser red detuned by 600--2400 MHz from the $^{1}S_{0}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}^{1}P_{1}$ atomic resonance at 461 nm. Photoassociation takes place at extremely large internuclear separation, and the photoassociative spectrum is strongly affected by relativistic retardation. A fit of the transition frequencies determines the $^{1}P_{1}$ atomic lifetime ($\ensuremath{\tau}=5.22\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.03\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{n}\mathrm{s}$) and resolves a discrepancy between experiment and recent theoretical calculations.

DOI
10.1103/physrevlett.94.083004

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We report photoassociative spectroscopy of 88Sr2{^{88}\mathrm{S}\mathrm{r}}_{2}88Sr2​ in a magneto-optical trap operating on the 1S0\ensuremath→3P1^{1}S_{0}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}^{3}P_{1}1S0​\ensuremath→3P1​ intercombination line at 689 nm. Photoassociative transitions are driven with a laser red detuned by 600--2400 MHz from the 1S0\ensuremath→1P1^{1}S_{0}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}^{1}P_{1}1S0​\ensuremath→1P1​ atomic resonance at 461 nm. Photoassociation takes place at extremely large internuclear separation, and the photoassociative spectrum is strongly affected by relativistic retardation. A fit of the transition frequencies determines the 1P1^{1}P_{1}1P1​ atomic lifetime (\ensuremathτ=5.22\ifmmode±\else\textpm\fi0.03  ns\ensuremath{\tau}=5.22\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.03\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{n}\mathrm{s}\ensuremathτ=5.22\ifmmode±\else\textpm\fi0.03  ns) and resolves a discrepancy between experiment and recent theoretical calculations.
Photoassociation spectroscopy is used to probe the ro-vibrational spectrum of the strontium dimer at the at the /sup 1/S/sub 0/ + /sup 3/P/sub 1/ - asymptote by measuring the trap loss depending on the frequency of a photoassociation laser red-detuned to the 1S/sub 0/-3P/sub 1/ transition. This study can be complemented by the measurement of the density dependent shift of the frequency of this narrow intercombination transition. The possibilities to realise a frequency standard on these transitions are discussed.
We report the use of photoassociative spectroscopy to determine the ground-state sss-wave scattering lengths for the main bosonic isotopes of strontium, 86Sr^{86}\mathrm{Sr}86Sr and 88Sr^{88}\mathrm{Sr}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^{86}\mathrm{Sr}86Sr at $\ensuremath{-}494\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}5\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{GHz}$ allows us to determine the scattering lengths 610a0<a86<2300a0610{a}_{0}<{a}_{86}<2300{a}_{0}610a0​<a86​<2300a0​ for 86Sr^{86}\mathrm{Sr}86Sr and a much smaller value of $\ensuremath{-}1{a}_{0}<{a}_{88}<13{a}_{0}$ for 88Sr^{88}\mathrm{Sr}88Sr.
This work describes intensity saturation of photoassociative transitions of 86Sr at the quantum mechanical unitarity limit. The saturation behavior, which results in a roll-over of the photoassociation rate for intensities greater than the saturation intensity, features interesting physics. Unlike other photoassociation spectroscopy (PAS) experiments, photoassociation occurs in a magneto-optical trap operating on the narrow dipole-forbidden transition at 689 nm. A laser red-detuned from the principal atomic transition at 461 nm by as much as 1300 GHz induces the photoassociation of ground state atoms to excited molecular states. Our previous studies [1] suggest that some of the PAS transitions for 86Sr are sensitive to the intensity of the laser. This work delves more deeply into these high intensity PAS effects, a subject that has not, to our knowledge, been studied experimentally for alkaline-earth atoms.
We demonstrate photoassociation (PA) of ultracold fermionic 87Sr^{87}\mathrm{Sr}87Sr atoms. The binding energies of a series of molecular states on the $^{1}\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Sigma}}_{u}^{+}\phantom{\rule{4pt}{0ex}}5{s}^{2}\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}^{1}S_{0}+5s5p\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}^{1}P_{1}$ molecular potential are fit with the semiclassical LeRoy-Bernstein model, and PA resonance strengths are compared to predictions based on the known 1S0+1S0^{1}S_{0}+^{1}S_{0}1S0​+1S0​ ground-state potential. Similar measurements and analysis were performed for the bosonic isotopes 84Sr^{84}\mathrm{Sr}84Sr and 86Sr^{86}\mathrm{Sr}86Sr, allowing a combined analysis of the long-range portion of the excited-state potential and determination of the 5s5p1P15s5p\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}^{1}P_{1}5s5p1P1​ atomic state lifetime of $5.20\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.02\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}\mathrm{ns}$. The results enable prediction of PA rates across a wide range of experimental conditions.
We report photoassociation spectroscopy of ultracold 86Sr^{86}\mathrm{Sr}86Sr atoms near the intercombination line and provide theoretical models to describe the obtained bound-state energies. We show that using only the molecular states correlating with the 1S0+3P1{}^{1}{S}_{0}+{}^{3}{P}_{1}1S0​+3P1​ asymptote is insufficient to provide a mass-scaled theoretical model that would reproduce the bound-state energies for all isotopes investigated to date: 84Sr,86Sr^{84}\mathrm{Sr},^{86}\mathrm{Sr}84Sr,86Sr, and 88Sr^{88}\mathrm{Sr}88Sr. We attribute that to the recently discovered avoided crossing between the 1S0+3P1{}^{1}{S}_{0}+{}^{3}{P}_{1}1S0​+3P1​ 0u+{0}_{u}^{+}0u+​ $({}^{3}{\ensuremath{\Pi}}_{u})$ and 1S0+1D2{}^{1}{S}_{0}+{}^{1}{D}_{2}1S0​+1D2​ 0u+{0}_{u}^{+}0u+​ $({}^{1}{\ensuremath{\Sigma}}_{u}^{+})$ potential curves at short range and we build a mass-scaled interaction model that quantitatively reproduces the available 0u+{0}_{u}^{+}0u+​ and 1u{1}_{u}1u​ bound-state energies for the three stable bosonic isotopes. We also provide isotope-specific two-channel models that incorporate the rotational (Coriolis) mixing between the 0u+{0}_{u}^{+}0u+​ and 1u{1}_{u}1u​ curves which, while not mass scaled, are capable of quantitatively describing the vibrational splittings observed in experiment. We find that the use of state-of-the-art ab initio potential curves significantly improves the quantitative description of the Coriolis mixing between the two $\ensuremath{-}8$-GHz bound states in 88Sr^{88}\mathrm{Sr}88Sr over the previously used model potentials. We show that one of the recently reported energy levels in 84Sr^{84}\mathrm{Sr}84Sr does not follow the long-range bound-state series and theorize on the possible causes. Finally, we give the Coriolis-mixing angles and linear Zeeman coefficients for all of the photoassociation lines. The long-range van der Waals coefficients C6(0u+)=3868(50){C}_{6}({0}_{u}^{+})=3868(50)C6​(0u+​)=3868(50) a.u. and C6(1u)=4085(50){C}_{6}({1}_{u})=4085(50)C6​(1u​)=4085(50) a.u. are reported.