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APS » Journals » Phys. Rev. Lett. » Volume 94 » Issue 8
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Phys. Rev. Lett. 94, 083004 (2005) [4 pages]

Photoassociative Spectroscopy at Long Range in Ultracold Strontium

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S. B. Nagel1, P. G. Mickelson1, A. D. Saenz1, Y. N. Martinez1, Y. C. Chen1, T. C. Killian1, P. Pellegrini2, and R. Côté2
1Department of Physics and Astronomy and Rice Quantum Institute, Rice University, Houston, Texas, 77251, USA
2Department of Physics, U-3046, University of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut, 06269-3046, USA

Received 5 October 2004; revised 18 February 2005; published 3 March 2005

We report photoassociative spectroscopy of 88Sr2 in a magneto-optical trap operating on the 1S0→3P1 intercombination line at 689 nm. Photoassociative transitions are driven with a laser red detuned by 600–2400 MHz from the 1S0→1P1 atomic resonance at 461 nm. Photoassociation takes place at extremely large internuclear separation, and the photoassociative spectrum is strongly affected by relativistic retardation. A fit of the transition frequencies determines the 1P1 atomic lifetime (τ=5.22±0.03  ns) and resolves a discrepancy between experiment and recent theoretical calculations.

© 2005 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.94.083004
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevLett.94.083004
PACS:
32.80.Pj
 
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