Short-range Photoassociation of LiRb
Abstract
We have observed short-range photoassociation of LiRb to the two lowest vibrational states of the d\,3 potential. These d\,3 molecules then spontaneously decay to vibrational levels of the a3\,+ state with generation rates of 103 molecules per second. This is the first observation of many of these a\,3+ levels. We observe an alternation of the peak heights in the rotational photoassociation spectrum that suggests a p-wave shape resonance in the scattering state. Franck-Condon overlap calculations predict that photoassociation to higher vibrational levels of the d\,3, in particular the sixth vibrational level, should populate the lowest vibrational level of the a\,3+ state with a rate as high as 104 molecules per second. These results encourage further work to explain our observed LiRb collisional physics using PECs. This work also motivates an experimental search for short-range photoassociation to other bound molecules, such as the c\,3+ or b\,3, as prospects for preparing ground-state molecules.