A pathway to ultracold bosonic ²³Na³⁹K ground state molecules

authored by

Kai K. Voges, Philipp Gersema, Torsten Hartmann, Torben A. Schulze, Alessandro Zenesini, Silke Ospelkaus

Abstract

We spectroscopically investigate a pathway for the conversion of ²³Na³⁹K Feshbach molecules into rovibronic ground state molecules via stimulated Raman adiabatic passage. Using photoassociation spectroscopy from the diatomic scattering threshold in the a ³Σ⁺ potential, we locate the resonantly mixed electronically excited intermediate states |B¹Π, v=8⟩ and |c³Σ⁺, v=30⟩ which, due to their singlet-triplet admixture, serve as an ideal bridge between predominantly a ³Σ⁺ Feshbach molecules and pure X ¹Σ⁺ ground state molecules. We investigate their hyperfine structure and present a simple model to determine the singlet-triplet coupling of these states. Using Autler-Townes spectroscopy, we locate the rovibronic ground state of the ²³Na³⁹K molecule (X¹Σ⁺, v=0, N=0⟩) and the second rotationally excited state N = 2 to unambiguously identify the ground state. We also extract the effective transition dipole moment from the excited to the ground state. Our investigations result in a fully characterized scheme for the creation of ultracold bosonic ²³Na³⁹K ground state molecules.

Organisation(s)

Institute of Quantum Optics
CRC 1227 Designed Quantum States of Matter (DQ-mat)

Type

Article

Journal

New journal of physics

Volume

21

ISSN

1367-2630

Publication date

17.12.2019

Publication status

Published

Peer reviewed

Yes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

General Physics and Astronomy

Electronic version(s)

https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.1910.13771 (Access: Open)
https://doi.org/10.1088/1367-2630/ab5f31 (Access: Open)
https://doi.org/10.15488/10769 (Access: Open)