Mechanism for the production of 6Li2 and 7Li2 ultracold molecules

Calculations are presented of the spontaneous emission probabilities and oscillator strengths of transitions between the vibrational energy levels of the ground and excited singlet and triplet states of the molecules Li-6(2) and Li-7(2). The fractions of transitions into the continuum and the discrete levels are estimated and it is shown that the translationally cold molecules can be produced during photoassociation experiments with high efficiency. The data are used to quantify a scheme by which translationally cold molecules can be created in specific rotational and vibrational levels. (C) 1999 Academic Press.