Model for the hyperfine structure of electronically-excited ${\rm KCs}$ molecules

Abstract

A model for determining the hyperfine structure of the excited electronic states of diatomic bialkali heteronuclear molecules is formulated from the atomic hyperfine interactions, and is applied to the case of bosonic $^{39}$KCs and fermionic $^{40}$KCs molecules. The hyperfine structure of the potential energy curves of the states correlated to the K($4s\,^2S_{1/2}$)+Cs($6p\,^2P_{1/2,3/2}$) dissociation limits is described in terms of different coupling schemes depending on the internuclear distance $R$. These results provide the first step in the calculation of the hyperfine structure of rovibrational levels of these excited molecular states in the perspective of the identification of efficient paths for creating ultracold ground-state KCs molecules.