Photoassociative production of ultracold heteronuclear YbLi* molecules

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 $250$GHz below the Yb(${}^1{S}_0$) + Li(${}^2{P}_{1/2}$) asymptote and observe isotopic PA line shifts in mixtures of ${}^6$Li with ${}^{174}$Yb, ${}^{172}$Yb, and ${}^{176}$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.

9 pages, 6 figures