title: Formation of ultracold (7)Li(85)Rb molecules in the lowest triplet electronic state by photoassociation and their detection by ionization spectroscopy.
abstract: We report the formation of ultracold (7)Li(85)Rb molecules in the a(3)Σ(+) electronic state by photoassociation (PA) and their detection via resonantly enhanced multiphoton ionization (REMPI). With our dual-species Li and Rb magneto-optical trap apparatus, we detect PA resonances with binding energies up to ∼62 cm(-1) below the (7)Li 2s (2)S1/2 + (85)Rb 5p (2)P1/2 asymptote. In addition, we use REMPI spectroscopy to probe the a(3)Σ(+) state and excited electronic 3(3)Π and 4(3)Σ(+) states and identify a(3)Σ(+) (v″ = 7-13), 3(3)Π (vΠ' = 0-10), and 4(3)Σ(+) (vΣ' = 0-5) vibrational levels. Our line assignments agree well with ab initio calculations. These preliminary spectroscopic studies on previously unobserved electronic states are crucial to discovering transition pathways for transferring ultracold LiRb molecules created via PA to deeply bound rovibrational levels of the electronic ground state.
authors: Department of Physics and Astronomy, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana 47907, USA.
authors: Adeel
authors: A
authors: Altaf
authors: Department of Physics and Astronomy, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana 47907, USA.
authors: Sourav
authors: S
authors: Dutta
authors: Department of Physics and Astronomy, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana 47907, USA.
authors: John
authors: J
authors: Lorenz
authors: Department of Physics and Astronomy, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana 47907, USA.
authors: Jesús
authors: J
authors: Pérez-Ríos
authors: Department of Physics and Astronomy, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana 47907, USA.
authors: Yong P
authors: YP
authors: Chen
authors: Department of Physics and Astronomy, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana 47907, USA.
authors: D S
authors: DS
authors: Elliott