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arXiv · 1903.00603

Two-photon photoassociation spectroscopy of the $^{2}Σ^+$ YbLi molecular ground state

Alaina Green·Jun Hui See Toh·Richard Roy·Ming Li·Svetlana Kotochigova·Subhadeep Gupta
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Abstract

We report on measurements of the binding energies of several weakly bound vibrational states of the paramagnetic $^{174}$Yb$^{6}$Li molecule in the electronic ground state using two-photon spectroscopy in an ultracold atomic mixture confined in an optical dipole trap. We theoretically analyze the experimental spectrum to obtain an accurate description of the long-range potential of the ground state molecule. Based on the measured binding energies, we arrive at an improved value of the interspecies $s$-wave scattering length $a_{s0}=30$ $a_0$. Employing coherent two-photon spectroscopy we also observe the creation of ''dark'' atom-molecule superposition states in the heteronuclear Yb-Li system. This work is an important step towards the efficient production of ultracold YbLi molecules via association from an ultracold atomic mixture.

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Alaina Green, Jun Hui See Toh, Richard Roy, Ming Li, Svetlana Kotochigova, Subhadeep Gupta. 2019-07-08. Two-photon photoassociation spectroscopy of the $^{2}Σ^+$ YbLi molecular ground state. https://doi.org/10.1103/physreva.99.063416

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