Multi-channel modeling of the formation of vibrationally cold polar KRb molecules.

Published

May 14, 2009

Author(s)

Svetlana Kotochigova, Eite Tiesinga, Paul S. Julienne

Abstract

We describe the theoretical advances that influenced the experimental creation of vibrationally and translationally cold polar 40K87Rb molecules [Nature Phys. 4, 622 (2008), Science 322, 231 (2008)]. Cold molecules were created from very-weakly bound molecules formed by magnetic field sweeps near a Feshbach resonance in collisions of ultra-cold 40K and 87Rb atoms. Our analysis include the multi-channel bound-state calculations of the hyperfine and Zeeman mixed X and a vibrational levels. We find excellent agreement with the hyperfine structure observed in experimental data. In addition, we studied the spin-orbit mixing in the intermediate state of the Raman transition. This allowed us to investigate its effect on the vibrationally-averaged transition dipole moment to the lowest ro-vibrational level of the X state. Finally, we obtained an estimate of the polarizability of the initial and final ro-vibrational states of the Raman transition near frequencies relevant for optical trapping of the molecules.

Citation

New Journal of Physics

Volume

11

Pub Type

Journals

Keywords

ultracold molecules, multi-channel calculations, polarizability, KRb, molecular hyperfine mixing, spin-orbit interactions

Citation

Kotochigova, S. , Tiesinga, E. and Julienne, P. (2009), Multi-channel modeling of the formation of vibrationally cold polar KRb molecules., New Journal of Physics (Accessed April 20, 2024)