Observation of photoassociation of ultracold sodium and cesium at the asymptote Na (3S1/2) + Cs (6P1/2)

Abstract

We report on the production of ultracold heteronuclear NaCs* molecules in a dual-species magneto-optical trap through photoassociation. The electronically excited molecules are formed below the Na (3S) + Cs (6P) dissociation limit. 12 resonance lines are detected using trap-loss spectroscopy based on a highly sensitive modulation technique. The highest observed rovibrational level exhibits clear hyperfine structure, which is detected for the first time. This structure is simulated within a simplified model consisting of 4 coupled levels belonging to the initially unperturbed Hund's case "a" electronic states, which have been explored in our previous work that dealt with the Na (3S) + Cs (6P) asymptote [W. Liu et al., Phys. Rev. A 94, 032518 (2016)].

Comparative analysis of nonrelativistic and relativistic calculations of electric dipole moments and polarizabilities of heteronuclear alkali-metal dimers

“…Some of the more recent works that realized these molecules either by Feshbach resonance or photoassociation include Refs. [5,[15][16][17][18][19][20][21]. The sheer number of experiments make these molecules attractive for several applications, such as quantum information technology, quantum simulations of condensed phase physics, studies of chemical reactions etc.…”

Cosine-type Absorbing Optical Potential for the Modeling of Quantum Dynamics with the Fourier Grid and Optimizer Packages

“…[58]. The Optimizer package has been used more widely in numerous applications (see [3, and the references therein).…”

“…New experimental targets and techniques have given rise to new requirements for these methods and programs. For example, in recent years, spectroscopy of the photoassociation (PA) of ultracold atoms (e. g., [2][3][4] and references therein) have drawn substantial attention, since these experiments are expected to be able to produce molecular ensembles in exotic states (and to some extent have already done so), such as molecules in their absolute (i. e., in all degrees of freedom) ground states [5,6], quantum gases and liquids of these molecules [7][8][9], and so on. Besides the obvious interest in these systems from a fundamental physics standpoint, they appear to be very prospective in applications in fields such as fully controlled quantum chemical reactions [10], highly precise measurements [11][12][13], and the development of quantum computers and quantum information systems [14,15].…”