2005/06/30 by Dajun Wang, D. Wang, E. E. Eyler +3 · 28 citations
Chemistry · Physics and Astronomy · #Atomic and Subatomic Physics Research #Atomic physics #Bond-dissociation energy #Chemistry #Cold Atom Physics and Bose-Einstein Condensates #Dissociation (chemistry) #Ground state #Metastability #Molecule #Physical chemistry #Physics #Quantum mechanics #Quantum optics and atomic interactions #Spectroscopy #physics.atom-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physreva.72.032502
published in Physical Review A 72(3) (American Physical Society) · 7 pages, 6 figures
arxiv created 2005/06/30 · openalex publication_date 2005/09/13 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
We report on the state-selective detection of near-dissociation ultracold KRb molecules in the ground X\phantom\rule0.2em0ex1\ensuremathΣ+ state and the metastable a\phantom\rule0.2em0ex3\ensuremathΣ+ state. The molecules are produced by photoassociation of ultracold atoms followed by radiative decay into high vibrational levels of the X and a states. Detection utilizes resonance-enhanced one-color two-photon ionization, followed by time-of-flight mass spectroscopy. Scanning the detection laser frequency over the range 582--625\phantom\rule0.3em0exnm, we observe transitions from the v^\ensuremath''=86--92 levels of the X state, which are bound by up to 30\phantom\rule0.3em0excm^\ensuremath-1, and the v^\ensuremath''=17--23 levels of the a state, which are also bound by up to 30\phantom\rule0.3em0excm^\ensuremath-1. The measured vibrational spacings are in excellent agreement with those previously measured and those calculated from the relevant potential curves. Relative vibrational populations are also consistent with Franck-Condon factors for decay from the photoassociated levels.