Upper Bound to the Ionization Energy of 85Rb2

Abstract

We report an upper bound to the ionization energy of 85Rb2 of 31348.0(6) cm-1, which also provides a lower bound to the dissociation energy D0 of 85Rb2+ of 6307.5(6) cm-1. These bounds were measured by the onset of autoionization of excited states of 85Rb2 below the 5s+7p atomic limit. We form 85Rb2 molecules via photoassociation of ultracold 85Rb atoms, and subsequently excite the molecules by single-photon ultraviolet transitions to states above the ionization threshold.

6 pages, 4 figures, to appear in PRA

References in corpus (3)

• Hyperfine, rotational, and vibrational structure of the triplet ground state of Rb molecules
• Precision measurements of quantum defects in the $n$P${}_{3/2}$ Rydberg States of ${}^{85}$Rb
• Photoassociation to the 2(1)Sigma(g)(+) state in ultracold 85Rb2 in the presence of a shape resonance

Cited by in corpus (7)

• Excitation of weakly-bound molecules to trilobite-like Rydberg states
• Photodissociation of trapped Rb${}_2^{+}$ : Implications for simultaneous trapping of atoms and molecular ions
• Spin-conservation propensity rule for three-body recombination of ultracold Rb atoms
• Charge Transfer in Ultracold Rydberg-Ground State Atomic Collisions
• Short-range photoassociation from the inner wall of the lowest triplet potential of ${}^{85}$Rb${}_2$
• High-Resolution Spectroscopy of {R}ydberg Molecular States of ${}^{85}${R}b${}_2$ Near the $5s+7p$ Asymptote
• High-accuracy Rb${}_2^{+}$ interaction potentials based on coupled cluster calculations