Production of Ultracold, PolarRbCs*Molecules via Photoassociation

Abstract

We have produced ultracold, polar ${\mathrm{R}\mathrm{b}\mathrm{C}\mathrm{s}}^{*}$ molecules via photoassociation in a laser-cooled mixture of Rb and Cs atoms. Using a model of the ${\mathrm{R}\mathrm{b}\mathrm{C}\mathrm{s}}^{*}$ molecular interaction which reproduces the observed rovibrational structure, we infer decay rates in our experiments into deeply bound $X{}^1\Sigma ^{+}$ ground-state RbCs vibrational levels as high as $5\times {10}^5{\mathrm{s}}^{-1}$ per level. Population in such deeply bound levels could be efficiently transferred to the vibrational ground state using a single stimulated Raman transition, opening the possibility to create large samples of stable, ultracold polar molecules.