Continuous Formation of Vibronic Ground State RbCs Molecules via Photoassociation

TL;DR

This paper reports the successful direct formation of ultracold RbCs molecules in their vibronic ground state through photoassociation and radiative stabilization, with verified resonances and analysis of efficiency factors.

Contribution

It introduces a method for creating ground state RbCs molecules via photoassociation through deeply-bound states, with experimental verification and analysis of saturation conditions.

Findings

Identification of photoassociation resonances leading to ground state molecules

Experimental verification of predicted resonances and saturation intensities

Discussion on potential for creating ultracold polar molecules in ground state

Abstract

We demonstrate the direct formation of vibronic ground state RbCs molecules by photoassociation of ultracold atoms followed by radiative stabilization. The photoassociation proceeds through deeply-bound levels of the (2)^{3}\Pi_{0^{+}} state. From analysis of the relevant free-to-bound and bound-to-bound Franck-Condon factors, we have predicted and experimentally verified a set of photoassociation resonances that lead to efficient creation of molecules in the v=0 vibrational level of the X^{1}\Sigma^{+} electronic ground state. We also compare the observed and calculated laser intensity required to saturate the photoassociation rate. We discuss the prospects for using short-range photoassociation to create and accumulate samples of ultracold polar molecules in their rovibronic ground state.