Hannover 2010 – scientific programme

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A: Fachverband Atomphysik

A 22: Cold Molecules (with MO)

A 22.2: Talk

Thursday, March 11, 2010, 14:15–14:30, F 142

High resolution spectroscopy of excited Rb₂ molecules — •christoph strauss¹, tetsu takekoshi², florian lang², marius lysebo³, leif veseth³, eberhard tiemann⁴, rudolf grimm^2,5, and johannes hecker denschlag^1,2 — ¹Institut für Quantenmaterie der Universität Ulm, D-89081 Ulm, Germany — ²Institut für Experimentalphysik und Zentrum für Quantenphysik, Universität Innsbruck, A-6020 Innsbruck, Austria — ³AlbaNova University Center Atomic-Molecular Physics S-106 91 Stockholm Sweden — ⁴Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Universität Hannover, D-30167 Hannover, Germany — ⁵Institut für Quantenoptik und Quanteninformation der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, A-6020 Innsbruck, Austria

Even today, understanding the hyperfine structure of excited alkali dimers can be quite a challenge. We carry out precision spectroscopy on excited ultracold Rb₂ molecules which are deeply bound in the ³Σ_g(5S_1/2+5P_1/2) triplet potential. By irradiating a sample of 3x10⁴ Rb₂ Feshbach molecules in an optical lattice with a widely tunable laser we detect excited bound levels through molecular loss. We fully resolve vibrational, rotational, hyperfine, and Zeeman structure. Using a model calculation a large fraction of the observed lines can be attributed to specific states and quantum numbers. However, for higher rotational quantum numbers systematic deviations occur which cannot be explained yet. A good understanding of the molecular structure is important for an optimized population transfer in various deeply bound states. Our results call for further research in this direction.