Mixing of 0$^+$ and 0$^-$ observed in hyperfine and Zeeman structure of ultracold Rb$_2$ molecules

TL;DR

This study investigates hyperfine and Zeeman interactions in ultracold Rb₂ molecules, revealing unexpected splittings and mixing of states due to state repulsion and spin-orbit coupling, with implications for molecular spectroscopy.

Contribution

It demonstrates the mixing of 0+ and 0− states in ultracold Rb₂ molecules and introduces a method to measure their energy spacing using optical spectroscopy.

Findings

Large splittings up to 160 MHz observed in spectra.

State mixing explained by repulsion between 0+ and 0− states.

Measured energy spacings Δ range around ±100 GHz.

Abstract

We study the combination of hyperfine and Zeeman structure in the spin-orbit coupled $A^1\Sigma_u^+-b^3\Pi_u$ complex of $^{87}\textrm{Rb}_2$. For this purpose, absorption spectroscopy at a magnetic field around $B=1000\:\textrm{G}$ is carried out. We drive optical dipole transitions from the lowest rotational state of an ultracold Feshbach molecule to various vibrational levels with $0^+$ symmetry of the $A-b$ complex. In contrast to previous measurements with rotationally excited alkali-dimers, we do not observe equal spacings of the hyperfine levels. In addition, the spectra vary substantially for different vibrational quantum numbers, and exhibit large splittings of up to $160\:\textrm{MHz}$, unexpected for $0^+$ states. The level structure is explained to be a result of the repulsion between the states $0^+$ and $0^-$ of $b^3\Pi_u$, coupled via hyperfine and Zeeman interactions. In general, $0^-$ and $0^+$ have a spin-orbit induced energy spacing $\Delta$, that is different for the individual vibrational states. From each measured spectrum we are able to extract $\Delta$, which otherwise is not easily accessible in conventional spectroscopy schemes. We obtain values of $\Delta$ in the range of $\pm 100\:\textrm{GHz}$ which can be described by coupled channel calculations if a spin-orbit coupling is introduced that is different for $0^-$ and $0^+$ of $b^3\Pi_u$.