title: Optical production of stable ultracold (88)Sr(2) molecules.
abstract: We have produced large samples of stable ultracold (88)Sr(2) molecules in the electronic ground state in an optical lattice. The fast, all-optical method of molecule creation involves a near-intercombination-line photoassociation pulse followed by spontaneous emission with a near-unity Franck-Condon factor. The detection uses excitation to a weakly bound electronically excited vibrational level corresponding to a very large dimer and yields a high-Q molecular vibronic resonance. This is the first of two steps needed to create deeply bound (88)Sr(2) for frequency metrology and ultracold chemistry.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Columbia University, 538 West 120th Street, New York, New York 10027-5255, USA.
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Reinaudi
authors.forename: C B
authors.initials: CB
authors.lastname: Osborn
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: McDonald
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kotochigova
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Zelevinsky