Evidence for the association of triatomic molecules in ultracold 23Na40K + 40K mixtures

Huan Yang, Xin-Yao Wang, Zhen Su, Jin Cao, Zhang De-Chao, Jun Rui, Bo Zhao (), Chun-Li Bai () and Jian-Wei Pan ()
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Huan Yang: University of Science and Technology of China
Xin-Yao Wang: University of Science and Technology of China
Zhen Su: University of Science and Technology of China
Jin Cao: University of Science and Technology of China
Zhang De-Chao: University of Science and Technology of China
Jun Rui: University of Science and Technology of China
Bo Zhao: University of Science and Technology of China
Chun-Li Bai: Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, Key Laboratory of Molecular Nanostructure and Nanotechnology, CAS Research/Education Center for Excellence in Molecular Sciences, Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Jian-Wei Pan: University of Science and Technology of China

Nature, 2022, vol. 602, issue 7896, 229-233

Abstract: Abstract Ultracold assembly of diatomic molecules has enabled great advances in controlled chemistry, ultracold chemical physics and quantum simulation with molecules1–3. Extending the ultracold association to triatomic molecules will offer many new research opportunities and challenges in these fields. A possible approach is to form triatomic molecules in a mixture of ultracold atoms and diatomic molecules by using a Feshbach resonance between them4,5. Although ultracold atom–diatomic-molecule Feshbach resonances have been observed recently6,7, using these resonances to form triatomic molecules remains challenging. Here we report on evidence of the association of triatomic molecules near the Feshbach resonance between 23Na40K molecules in the rovibrational ground state and 40K atoms. We apply a radio-frequency pulse to drive the free-bound transition in ultracold mixtures of 23Na40K and 40K and monitor the loss of 23Na40K molecules. The association of triatomic molecules manifests itself as an additional loss feature in the radio-frequency spectra, which can be distinguished from the atomic loss feature. The observation that the distance between the association feature and the atomic transition changes with the magnetic field provides strong evidence for the formation of triatomic molecules. The binding energy of the triatomic molecules is estimated from the measurements. Our work contributes to the understanding of the complex ultracold atom–molecule Feshbach resonances and may open up an avenue towards the preparation and control of ultracold triatomic molecules.

Date: 2022
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DOI: 10.1038/s41586-021-04297-2

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