Formation of deeply bound ultracold LiRb molecules via photoassociation near the Li 2S1/2 + Rb 5P3/2 asymptote
Abstract
We present spectra of ultracold 7Li85Rb molecules in their electronic ground state formed by spontaneous decay of weakly bound photoassociated molecules. Beginning with atoms in a dual species magneto-optical trap (MOT), weakly bound molecules are formed in the 4(1) electronic state, which corresponds to the B1 state at short range. These molecules spontaneously decay to the electronic ground state and we use resonantly enhanced multiphoton ionization (REMPI) to determine the vibrational population distribution in the electronic ground states after spontaneous emission. Many of the observed lines from the spectra are consistent with transitions from the X1+ ground electronic state to either the B1 or D1 electronic states that have been previously observed, with levels possibly as low as X1+ (v'' = 2) being populated. We do not observe decay to weakly bound vibrational levels of the X1+ or a3+ electronic states in the spectra. We also deduce a lower bound of 3900 cm-1 for the dissociation energy of the LiRb+ molecular ion.
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