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arXiv · 1606.03120

Photoassociative production of ultracold heteronuclear YbLi* molecules

Richard Roy·Rajendra Shrestha·Alaina Green·Subhadeep Gupta·Ming Li·Svetlana Kotochigova·Alexander Petrov·Chi Hong Yuen
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Abstract

We report on the production of ultracold heteronuclear YbLi* molecules in a dual-species magneto-optical trap by photoassociation (PA). The formation of the electronically excited molecules close to dissociation was observed by trap loss spectroscopy. We find 4 rovibrational states within a range of $250\,$GHz below the Yb($^1S_0$) + Li($^2P_{1/2}$) asymptote and observe isotopic PA line shifts in mixtures of $^6$Li with $^{174}$Yb, $^{172}$Yb, and $^{176}$Yb. We also describe our theoretical ab-initio calculation for the relevant electronic potentials and utilize it to analyze and identify the lines in the experimentally observed spectrum.

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Richard Roy, Rajendra Shrestha, Alaina Green, Subhadeep Gupta, Ming Li, Svetlana Kotochigova, Alexander Petrov, Chi Hong Yuen. 2016-06-09. Photoassociative production of ultracold heteronuclear YbLi* molecules. https://doi.org/10.1103/physreva.94.033413

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