Photoassociation spectroscopy of ultracold metastable 3He dimers

Abstract

The bound states of the fermionic ³He(2 ³S₁) + ³He(2 ³P_j) system, where j = 0, 1, 2, are investigated using the recently available ab initio short-range ^1,3,5Σ⁺_g,u and ^1,3,5Π_g,u potentials computed by Deguilhem et al. (J. Phys. B: At., Mol. Opt. Phys., 2009, 42, 015102). Single-channel and multichannel calculations have been undertaken in order to investigate the effects of Coriolis and non-adiabatic couplings. The possible experimental observability of the theoretical levels is assessed using criteria based upon the short-range character of each level and their coupling to metastable ground states. Purely long-range levels have been identified and 30 short-range levels near five asymptotes are suggested for experimental investigation.