State-Selective Detection of Near-Dissociation Ultracold KRb $X^1{\Sigma }^{+}$ and $a^3{\Sigma }^{+}$ Molecules

Abstract

We report on the state-selective detection of near-dissociation ultracold KRb molecules in the ground $X^1{\Sigma }^{+}$ state and the metastable $a^3{\Sigma }^{+}$ state. The molecules are produced by photoassociation of ultracold atoms followed by radiative decay into high vibrational levels of the $X$ and $a$ states. Detection utilizes resonance-enhanced one-color two-photon ionization, followed by time-of-flight mass spectroscopy. Scanning the detection laser frequency over the range 582-625 nm, we observe transitions from the $v^{\prime \prime }$=86-92 levels of the $X$ state, which are bound by up to 30 cm${}^{-1}$, and the $v^{\prime \prime }$=17-23 levels of the $a$ state, which are also bound by up to 30 cm${}^{-1}$. The measured vibrational spacings are in excellent agreement with those previously measured and those calculated from the relevant potential curves. Relative vibrational populations are also consistent with Franck-Condon factors for decay from the photoassociated levels.

7 pages, 6 figures

References in corpus (14)

• Observation of Bose-Einstein Condensation of Molecules
• Creation of ultracold molecules from a Fermi gas of atoms
• Conversion of an Atomic Fermi Gas to a Long-Lived Molecular Bose Gas
• Optical Production of Ultracold Polar Molecules
• Production of Long-Lived Ultracold Li2 Molecules from a Fermi gas
• Observation of Heteronuclear Feshbach Resonances in a Bose-Fermi Mixture
• Observation of Feshbach resonances between two different atomic species
• Observation of molecules produced from a Bose-Einstein condensate
• Formation of Quantum-Degenerate Sodium Molecules
• Photoassociative Production and Trapping of Ultracold KRb Molecules
• Production and state-selective detection of ultracold, ground state RbCs molecules
• Creation of a dipolar superfluid in optical lattices
• Sensitive Detection of Cold Cesium Molecules by Radiative Feshbach Spectroscopy
• Ab initio calculation of the KRb dipole moments

Cited by in corpus (5)

• Formation and interactions of cold and ultracold molecules: new challenges for interdisciplinary physics
• Molecule formation in ultracold atomic gases
• The X${}^1{\Sigma }^{+}$ and a${}^3{\Sigma }^{+}$ states of LiCs studied by Fourier-transform spectroscopy
• Two-Photon Spectroscopy of the NaLi Triplet Ground State
• Spectroscopy of the Double Minimum $3{}^3{\Pi }_{\Omega }$ Electronic State of ${}^{39}$K${}^{85}$Rb