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arXiv · 2103.00510

Probing photoinduced two-body loss of ultracold non-reactive bosonic $^{23}$Na$^{87}$Rb and $^{23}$Na$^{39}$K molecules

P. Gersema·K. K. Voges·M. Meyer zum Alten Borgloh·L. Koch·T. Hartmann·A. Zenesini·S. Ospelkaus·J. Lin·J. He·D. Wang
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Abstract

We probe photo-induced loss for chemically stable bosonic $^{23}$Na$^{87}$Rb and $^{23}$Na$^{39}$K molecules in chopped optical dipole traps where the molecules spend a significant time in the dark. We expect the effective two-body decay to be largely suppressed in chopped traps due to the small expected complex lifetimes of about $13μ$s and $6μ$s for $^{23}$Na$^{87}$Rb and $^{23}$Na$^{39}$K respectively. However, instead we do observe near-universal loss even at the lowest chopping frequencies we can probe. Our data thus either suggest a so far unknown loss mechanism or a drastic underestimation of the complex lifetime by at least one to two orders of magnitude.

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P. Gersema, K. K. Voges, M. Meyer zum Alten Borgloh, L. Koch, T. Hartmann, A. Zenesini, S. Ospelkaus, J. Lin, J. He, D. Wang. 2021-03-02. Probing photoinduced two-body loss of ultracold non-reactive bosonic $^{23}$Na$^{87}$Rb and $^{23}$Na$^{39}$K molecules. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.127.163401

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