Prospects of forming ultracold molecules in double-Sigma states by magnetoassociation of alkali-metal atoms with Yb

Brue, Daniel A.; Hutson, Jeremy M.

Abstract

We explore the feasibility of producing ultracold diatomic molecules with nonzero electric and magnetic dipole moments by magnetically associating two atoms, one with zero electron spin and one with nonzero spin. Feshbach resonances arise through the dependence of the hyperfine coupling on internuclear distance.We survey the Feshbach resonances in diatomic systems combining the nine stable alkali-metal isotopes with those of Yb, focusing on the illustrative examples of RbYb and CsYb. We show that the resonance widths may expressed as a product of physically comprehensible terms in the framework of Fermi’s golden rule. The resonance widths depend strongly on the background scattering length, which may be adjusted by selecting the Yb isotope, and on the hyperfine coupling constant and the magnetic field. In favorable cases the resonances may be over 100 mG wide.

Citation

Brue, D. A., & Hutson, J. M. (2013). Prospects of forming ultracold molecules in double-Sigma states by magnetoassociation of alkali-metal atoms with Yb. Physical Review A, 87(5), Article 052709. https://doi.org/10.1103/physreva.87.052709

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Publication Date: May 1, 2013
• Deposit Date: Jan 13, 2014
• Publicly Available Date: Jan 24, 2014
• Journal: Physical Review A - Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics
• Print ISSN: 1050-2947
• Electronic ISSN: 1094-1622
• Publisher: American Physical Society
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 87
• Issue: 5
• Article Number: 052709
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/physreva.87.052709
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1473124