English

Assembly of a rovibrational ground state molecule in an optical tweezer

Atomic Physics 2021-03-31 v1 Quantum Gases

Abstract

We demonstrate the coherent creation of a single NaCs molecule in its rotational, vibrational, and electronic (rovibronic) ground state in an optical tweezer. Starting with a weakly bound Feshbach molecule, we locate a two-photon transition via the c3Σ,v=26|{c^3\Sigma,v'=26}\rangle excited state and drive coherent Rabi oscillations between the Feshbach state and a single hyperfine level of the NaCs rovibronic ground state X1Σ,v=0,N=0|{X^1\Sigma,v''=0,N''=0}\rangle with a binding energy of D0=h×147038.30(2)D_0 = h \times 147038.30(2) GHz. We measure a lifetime of 3.4±1.63.4\pm1.6 s for the rovibronic ground-state molecule, which possesses a large molecule-frame dipole moment of 4.6 Debye and occupies predominantly the motional ground state. These long-lived, fully quantum-state-controlled individual dipolar molecules provide a key resource for molecule-based quantum simulation and information processing.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2101.03168,
  title  = {Assembly of a rovibrational ground state molecule in an optical tweezer},
  author = {William B. Cairncross and Jessie T. Zhang and Lewis R. B. Picard and Yichao Yu and Kenneth Wang and Kang-Kuen Ni},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2101.03168},
  year   = {2021}
}