Long-range states of the NaRb molecule near the Na($3^2S_{1/2}$)+Rb($5^2P_{3/2}$) asymptote

TL;DR

This paper presents a detailed spectroscopic study of the long-range states of ultracold NaRb molecules near a specific atomic asymptote, revealing vibrational series, hyperfine effects, and predissociation phenomena.

Contribution

It provides the first high-resolution spectra of these long-range states, identifying vibrational series and quantifying van der Waals coefficients with experimental data.

Findings

Identification of multiple vibrational series near the asymptote

Observation of hyperfine and Zeeman structures in vibrational levels

Measurement of van der Waals coefficient $C_6$ in agreement with theory

Abstract

We report a high-resolution spectroscopic investigation of the long-range states of the $^{23}$Na$^{87}$Rb molecule near its Na($3^2S_{1/2}$)+Rb($5^2P_{3/2}$) asymptote. This study was performed with weakly bound ultracold molecules produced via magneto-association with an inter-species Feshbach resonance. We observed several regular vibrational series, which are assigned to the 5 attractive long-range states correlated with this asymptote. The vibrational levels of two of these states have sharp but complex structures due to hyperfine and Zeeman interactions. For the other states, we observed significant linewidth broadenings due to strong predissociation caused by spin-orbit couplings with states correlated to the lower Na($3^2S_{1/2}$)+Rb($5^2P_{1/2}$) asymptote. The long-range $C_6$ van der Waals coefficients extracted from our spectrum are in good agreement with theoretical values.