Clock-line photoassociation of strongly bound dimers in a magic-wavelength lattice

Abstract

We report on the direct optical production and spectroscopy of ¹𝑆₀−³𝑃₀ molecules with large binding energy using the clock transition of ¹⁷¹⁢Yb, and on the observation of the associated orbital Feshbach resonance near 1300G. We measure the magnetic field dependence of the closed-channel dimer and of the open-channel pair state energy via clock-line spectroscopy in a deep optical lattice. In addition, we show that the free-to-bound transition into the dimer can be made first-order insensitive to the trap depth by the choice of lattice wavelength. Finally, we determine the fundamental intra- and interorbital scattering lengths and probe the stability of the corresponding pair states, finding long lifetimes in both interorbital interaction channels. These results are promising both for molecular clocks and for the preparation of strongly interacting multiorbital Fermi gases.

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