Feshbach resonances and molecule formation in ultracold mixtures of Rb and Yb(${}^3$P) atoms

Abstract

We have investigated magnetically tunable Feshbach resonances in ultracold collisions of Rb with Yb in its metastable ${}^3$P${}_2$ and ${}^3$P${}_0$ states, using coupled-channel scattering and bound-state calculations. For the ${}^3$P${}_2$ state, we find sharp resonances when both atoms are in their lowest Zeeman sublevels. However, these resonances are decayed by inelastic processes that produce Yb atoms in ${}^3$P${}_1$ and ${}^3$P${}_0$ states. The molecules that might be produced by magnetoassociation at the ${}^3$P${}_2$ thresholds can decay by similar pathways and would have lifetimes no more than a few microseconds. For the ${}^3$P${}_0$ state, by contrast, there are resonances that are promising for magnetoassociation. There are resonances due to both rotating and non-rotating molecular states that are significantly stronger than the analogous resonances for Yb(${}^1$S). The ones due to rotating states are denser in magnetic field; in contrast to Yb(${}^1$S), they exist even for bosonic isotopes of Yb(${}^3$P${}_0$).

15 pages and 8 figures

References in corpus (4)

• Feshbach resonances in ultracold atomic and molecular collisions: threshold behaviour and suppression of poles in scattering lengths
• Magnetic field dependent interactions in an ultracold Li-Yb(${}^3$P${}_2$) mixture
• Characterizing Feshbach resonances in ultracold scattering calculations
• Two-photon photoassociation spectroscopy of the ${}^2{\Sigma }^{+}$ YbLi molecular ground state

Cited by in corpus (2)

• Intercombination line photoassociation spectroscopy of ${}^{87}$Rb${}^{170}$Yb
• Magnetic Feshbach resonances between atoms in ${}^2$S and ${}^3$P${}_0$ states: mechanisms and dependence on atomic properties