Radio frequency association of heteronuclear Feshbach molecules

TL;DR

This paper analyzes the efficiency of creating heteronuclear KRb Feshbach molecules via radio frequency association, providing an analytical model that explains spectral asymmetries and aligns well with experimental data.

Contribution

It introduces a comprehensive analytical model for heteronuclear Feshbach molecule production, explaining spectral features and matching experimental results.

Findings

Good quantitative agreement between model and measurements.

Spectral asymmetries are explained by the model.

Efficiency varies with temperature, binding energy, and RF frequency.

Abstract

We present a detailed analysis of the production efficiency of weakly bound heteronuclear KRb-Feshbach molecules using radio frequency association in a harmonic trap. The efficiency was measured in a wide range of temperatures, binding energies and radio frequencies. A comprehensive analytical model is presented, explaining the observed asymmetric spectra and achieving good quantitative agreement with the measured production rates. This model provides a deep understanding of the molecule association process and paves the way for future experiments which rely on Feshbach molecules e.g. for the production of deeply bound molecules.