Photoassociation of ultracold NaLi

Abstract

We perform photoassociation spectroscopy in an ultracold ²³Na–⁶Li mixture to study the c³Σ⁺ excited triplet molecular potential. We observe 50 vibrational states and their substructure to an accuracy of 20 MHz, and provide line strength data from photoassociation loss measurements. An analysis of the vibrational line positions using near-dissociation expansions and a full potential fit is presented. This is the first observation of the c³Σ⁺ potential, as well as photoassociation in the NaLi system.