Production of ultracold ground state LiRb molecules by photoassociation through a resonantly coupled state

Abstract

We report on a resonantly coupled 2(1) - 4 (1) photoassociation resonance in LiRb. This pair of states displays interesting decay physics that hint at interference-like effects caused by two different decay paths. We observe decay to predominantly $X \ ^1\Sigma^+ \ v=43$, with significant numbers of molecules produced in $X \ ^1\Sigma^+ \ v=2$ - 12. This photoassociation resonance also produces $\sim$300 $X \ ^1\Sigma^+ \ v=0 \ J=0$ molecules/second. Finally, we identify a stimulated Raman adiabatic passage transfer pathway from $v=43$ to $v=0$ that has the potential to produce up to $2 \times 10^5$ LiRb molecules/second in the $X \ ^1\Sigma^+ \ v=0 \ J=0$ state.