Photoassociation spectroscopy of ultracold $^{173}$Yb atoms near the intercombination line

Abstract

We report on photoassociation (PA) spectroscopy of a degenerate Fermi gas of $^{173}$Yb atoms near the dissociation limit of the spin-forbidden ${^1}S_0-{^3}P_1$ intercombination transition. An atom-loss spectrum is measured from a trapped sample for a spectral range down to $-1$~GHz with respect to the $f=5/2 \rightarrow f^\prime=7/2$ atomic resonance. The spectrum shows eighty PA resonances, revealing the high nuclear spin nature of the system. We investigate the Zeeman effect on the spectrum near a detuning of $-0.8$~GHz, where we examine the quantum numbers of the Zeeman levels using various two-component spin mixture samples. Finally, we measure the atom loss rate under PA light for several pronounced PA resonances.