Determination of the87Rb5pstate dipole matrix element and radiative lifetime from the photoassociation spectroscopy of theRb20g−(P3/2)long-range state

Abstract

We present a detailed study of the ${0}_{g}^{\ensuremath{-}}{(P}_{3/2})$ pure long-range electronic state of the ${}^{87}{\mathrm{Rb}}_{2}$ molecule. The high-resolution spectral data provided by photoassociative spectroscopy of ${}^{87}{\mathrm{Rb}}_{2}$ is analyzed by using the generalized simulated annealing method. The dipole matrix element of the $5p$ ${}^{87}\mathrm{Rb}$ atomic state and other effective asymptotic parameters for the ${0}_{g}^{\ensuremath{-}}{(P}_{3/2})$ long-range state are determined and a complete analytical description of the potential well is obtained. We extract a radiative lifetime of the ${5P}_{3/2}$ and ${5P}_{1/2}$ states equal to 26.25(8) ns and 27.75(8) ns, respectively, with a precision (0.3%) comparable to atomic physics experiment.