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Production of Ultracold, Polar RbCs* Molecules via Photoassociation

Andrew J. Kerman, Jeremy M. Sage, Sunil Sainis, David DeMille, Thomas Bergeman

physics.atom-pharXiv:physics/0308020

Abstract

We have produced ultracold, polar RbCs* molecules via photoassociation in a laser-cooled mixture of Rb and Cs atoms. Using a model of the RbCs* molecular interaction which reproduces the observed rovibrational structure, we infer decay rates in our experiments into deeply bound singlet ground state RbCs vibrational levels as high as 5 x 105 s-1 per level. Population in such deeply bound levels could be efficiently transferred to the vibrational ground state using a single stimulated Raman transition, opening the possibility to create large samples of stable, ultracold polar molecules.

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