Spectroscopic detection of the LiHe molecule
Naima Tariq, Nada Al Taisan, Vijay Singh, and Jonathan D. Weinstein
Accepted
We have used cryogenic helium buffer-gas cooling to form large densities of lithium atoms in a high-density helium gas, from which LiHe molecules form by three-body recombination. These weakly-bound Van der Waals molecules are detected spectroscopically, and their binding energy is measured from their equilibrium thermodynamic properties.