Production and state-selective detection of ultracold, ground state RbCs molecules

Abstract

Using resonance-enhanced two-photon ionization, we detect ultracold, ground-state RbCs molecules formed via photoassociation in a laser-cooled mixture of 85Rb and 133Cs atoms. We obtain extensive bound-bound excitation spectra of these molecules, which provide detailed information about their vibrational distribution, as well as spectroscopic data on the RbCs ground a^3Σ^+ and excited (2)^3Σ^+, (1)^1Πstates. Analysis of this data allows us to predict strong transitions from observed excited levels to the absolute vibronic ground state of RbCs, potentially allowing the production of stable, ultracold polar molecules at rates as large as 10^7 s^{-1}.