Investigation of the RbCa molecule: Experiment and theory.
We present a thorough theoretical and experimental study of the electronic structure of RbCa. The mixed alkali-alkaline earth molecule RbCa was formed on superfluid helium nanodroplets. Excited states of the molecule in the range of 13 000-23 000 cm-1were recorded by resonance enhanced multi-photon ionization time-of-flight spectroscopy. The experiment is accompanied by high levelab initiocalculations of ground and excited state properties, utilizing a multireference configuration interaction method based on multiconfigurational self consistent field calculations. With this approach the potential energy curves and permanent electric dipole moments of 24 electronic states were calculated. In addition we computed the transition dipole moments for transitions from the ground into excited states. The combination of experiment and theory allowed the assignment of features in the recorded spectrum to the excited [Formula: see text], [Formula: see text], [Formula: see text], [Formula: see text], [Formula: see text], [Formula: see text], [Formula: see text], and [Formula: see text] states, where the experiment allowed to benchmark the calculation. This is the first experimental work giving insight into the previously unknown RbCa molecule, which offers great prospects in ultracold molecular physics due to its magnetic and electronic dipole moment in the [Formula: see text] ground state.
Institute of Experimental Physics, Graz University of Technology, Petersgasse 16, A-8010 Graz, Austria.
Johann V
JV
Pototschnig
Institute of Experimental Physics, Graz University of Technology, Petersgasse 16, A-8010 Graz, Austria.
Günter
G
Krois
Institute of Experimental Physics, Graz University of Technology, Petersgasse 16, A-8010 Graz, Austria.
Florian
F
Lackner
Institute of Experimental Physics, Graz University of Technology, Petersgasse 16, A-8010 Graz, Austria.
Wolfgang E
WE
Ernst
Ab initio; Alkali–alkaline earth molecules; Calcium; Excited states; Helium nanodroplets; Rubidium; Spectroscopy