Formation of ultracold polar molecules in a single quantum state

Abstract

We compute the formation rate of a polar molecule, LiH, into the lowest triplet electronic state, a {sup 3{Sigma}+}, via population of the intermediate excited electronic state, b {sup 3{Pi}}, followed by radiative decay. We find large formation rates into the single rovibrational bound state (v=0,J=0) of the a {sup 3{Sigma}+}, which can be explained by the unusually large overlap of its wave function with those of the two upper-most bound levels of the b {sup 3{Pi}}. With conservative parameters, we estimate that over 10{sup 4} molecules/s could be produced in the single rovibrational level of the a {sup 3{Sigma}+} state. We also discuss scattering properties of LiH triplet molecules and their relevance to ultracold chemical reactions.