Efficient production of long-lived ultracold Sr${}_2$ molecules

Abstract

We associate Sr atom pairs on sites of a Mott insulator optically and coherently into weakly-bound ground-state molecules, achieving an efficiency above 80\%. This efficiency is 2.5 times higher than in our previous work [S. Stellmer, B. Pasquiou, R. Grimm, and F. Schreck, Phys. Rev. Lett. 109, 115302 (2012)] and obtained through two improvements. First, the lifetime of the molecules is increased beyond one minute by using an optical lattice wavelength that is further detuned from molecular transitions. Second, we compensate undesired dynamic light shifts that occur during the stimulated Raman adiabatic passage (STIRAP) used for molecule association. We also characterize and model STIRAP, providing insights into its limitations. Our work shows that significant molecule association efficiencies can be achieved even for atomic species or mixtures that lack Feshbach resonances suitable for magnetoassociation.

16 pages, 13 figures, 2 tables; new reference added in introduction, corrected typos and improved reference Bibtex items

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Cited by in corpus (20)

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• Optical lattice clocks with weakly bound molecules
• Ultracold ${}^{88}{\mathrm{Sr}}_2$ molecules in the absolute ground state
• Two-photon photoassociation spectroscopy of the ${}^2{\Sigma }^{+}$ YbLi molecular ground state
• Laser control of ultracold molecule formation: The case of RbSr
• Transition strength measurements to guide magic wavelength selection in optically trapped molecules
• Proposal for the formation of ultracold deeply-bound RbSr dipolar molecules by all-optical methods
• Observation of Bose-enhanced photoassociation products
• Individual assembly of two-species Rydberg molecules using optical tweezers
• Searching for New Fundamental Interactions via Isotopic Shifts in Molecular Lattice Clocks
• Intercombination line photoassociation spectroscopy of ${}^{87}$Rb${}^{170}$Yb
• Ab initio electronic structure of the Sr${}_2^{+}$ molecular ion
• Highly Efficient Creation and Detection of Deeply-bound Molecules via Invariant-based Inverse Engineering with Feasible Modified Drivings
• Stimulated Raman adiabatic passage-like protocols for amplitude transfer generalize to many bipartite graphs
• Robust switching of superposition-states via a coherent double stimulated Raman adiabatic passage
• Low-energy scatterings and pseudopotential of polarized quadrupoles
• Weak-Field Coherent Control of Ultrafast Molecule Making
• Coherent Control of Ultrafast Bond Making and Subsequent Molecular Dynamics: Demonstration of Final-State Branching Ratio Control