Short-range Photoassociation of LiRb

Abstract

We have observed short-range photoassociation of LiRb to the two lowest vibrational states of the $d{}^3\Pi$ potential. These $d{}^3\Pi$ molecules then spontaneously decay to vibrational levels of the $a^3{\Sigma }^{+}$ state with generation rates of $\sim 10^3$ molecules per second. This is the first observation of many of these $a{}^3{\Sigma }^{+}$ levels. We observe an alternation of the peak heights in the rotational photoassociation spectrum that suggests a $p$-wave shape resonance in the scattering state. Franck-Condon overlap calculations predict that photoassociation to higher vibrational levels of the $d{}^3\Pi$, in particular the sixth vibrational level, should populate the lowest vibrational level of the $a{}^3{\Sigma }^{+}$ state with a rate as high as $10^4$ molecules per second. These results encourage further work to explain our observed LiRb collisional physics using PECs. This work also motivates an experimental search for short-range photoassociation to other bound molecules, such as the $c{}^3{\Sigma }^{+}$ or $b{}^3\Pi$, as prospects for preparing ground-state molecules.

arXiv comment6 pages, 5 figures, 2 tables

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Cited by in corpus (5)

• Ultracold Molecule Assembly with Photonic Crystals
• Continuous Production of Rovibronic Ground State RbCs Molecules via Short-Range Photoassociation to the $b^3{\Pi }_1-c^3{\Sigma }_1^{+}-B^1{\Pi }_1$ States
• $C_6$ coefficients for interacting Rydberg atoms and alkali-metal dimers
• Dynamics of translational and rotational thermalization of AlF molecules via collisions with cryogenic helium
• Genetics-based deperturbation analysis for the spin-orbit coupled ${\mathrm{A}}^1{\Sigma }^{+}$ and ${\mathrm{b}}^3{\Pi }_{0^{+}}$ states of LiRb