Interaction potential for NaCs for ultracold scattering and spectroscopy

TL;DR

This paper develops an accurate interaction potential for NaCs molecules by fitting to ultracold scattering and spectroscopy data, enabling precise predictions of molecular states and Feshbach resonances.

Contribution

The study refines the NaCs interaction potential by combining experimental data with coupled-channel calculations, especially adjusting the long-range dispersion coefficient for better accuracy.

Findings

The long-range dispersion coefficient C6 is increased by about 0.9% to 3256(1) E_h a_0^6.

Coupled-channel calculations accurately predict bound-state energies and resonance positions.

The potential elucidates relationships between experimental observables and molecular interactions.

Abstract

We obtain the interaction potential for NaCs by fitting to experiments on ultracold scattering and spectroscopy in optical tweezers. The central region of the potential has been accurately determined from Fourier-Transform spectroscopy at higher temperatures, so we focus on adjusting the long-range and short-range parts. We use coupled-channel calculations of binding energies and wave functions to understand the nature of the molecular states observed in ultracold spectroscopy, and of the state that causes the Feshbach resonance used to create ultracold NaCs molecules. We elucidate the relationships between the experimental quantities and features of the interaction potential. We establish the combinations of experimental quantities that determine particular features of the potential. We find that the long-range dispersion coefficient $C_6$ must be increased by about 0.9% to 3256(1) $E_\textrm{h} a_0^6$ to fit the experimental results. We use coupled-channel calculations on the final potential to predict bound-state energies and resonance positions.