Assembly of a rovibrational ground state molecule in an optical tweezer


Abstract in English

We demonstrate the coherent creation of a single NaCs molecule in its rotational, vibrational, and electronic (rovibronic) ground state in an optical tweezer. Starting with a weakly bound Feshbach molecule, we locate a two-photon transition via the $|{c^3Sigma,v=26}rangle$ excited state and drive coherent Rabi oscillations between the Feshbach state and a single hyperfine level of the NaCs rovibronic ground state $|{X^1Sigma,v=0,N=0}rangle$ with a binding energy of $D_0 = h times 147038.30(2)$ GHz. We measure a lifetime of $3.4pm1.6$ s for the rovibronic ground-state molecule, which possesses a large molecule-frame dipole moment of 4.6 Debye and occupies predominantly the motional ground state. These long-lived, fully quantum-state-controlled individual dipolar molecules provide a key resource for molecule-based quantum simulation and information processing.

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