Hyperfine energy levels of alkali-metal dimers : ground-state polar molecules in electric and magnetic fields

Aldegunde, J.; Rivington, Ben A.; Zuchowski, Piotr S.; Hutson, Jeremy M.

Abstract

We investigate the energy levels of heteronuclear alkali-metal dimers in levels correlating with the lowest rotational level of the ground electronic state, which are important in efforts to produce ground-state ultracold molecules. We use density-functional theory to calculate nuclear quadrupole and magnetic coupling constants for KRb and RbCs and explore the hyperfine structure in the presence of electric and magnetic fields. For nonrotating states, the zero-field splittings are dominated by the electron-mediated part of the nuclear spin-spin coupling. They are a few kilohertz for KRb isotopologs and a few tens of kilohertz for RbCs isotopologs.

Citation

Aldegunde, J., Rivington, B. A., Zuchowski, P. S., & Hutson, J. M. (2008). Hyperfine energy levels of alkali-metal dimers : ground-state polar molecules in electric and magnetic fields. Physical Review A, 78(3), Article 033434. https://doi.org/10.1103/physreva.78.033434

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Publication Date: Sep 1, 2008
• Deposit Date: Jun 19, 2013
• Publicly Available Date: Jun 24, 2013
• Journal: Physical Review A
• Print ISSN: 1050-2947
• Electronic ISSN: 1094-1622
• Publisher: American Physical Society
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 78
• Issue: 3
• Article Number: 033434
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/physreva.78.033434