Optical production of stable ultracold Sr288 molecules

Abstract

We have produced large samples of stable ultracold Sr288 molecules in the electronic ground state in an optical lattice. The fast, all-optical method of molecule creation involves a near-intercombination-line photoassociation pulse followed by spontaneous emission with a near-unity Franck-Condon factor. The detection uses excitation to a weakly bound electronically excited vibrational level corresponding to a very large dimer and yields a high-Q molecular vibronic resonance. This is the first of two steps needed to create deeply bound Sr288 for frequency metrology and ultracold chemistry. © 2012 American Physical Society.