10min:

J. LI, J. ZHANG, J. BAHNS, W. C. STWALLEY, Department of Physics, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT 06268; E. S. CHANG, Department of Physics \& Astronomy, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA 01003; AND C. C. TSAI, Department of Physics, National Chung-Hsing Univerity, Taichung, Taiwan, R.O.C.

The X\,¹ _g⁺(1,J^{/ / /} ) \longrightarrow A\,¹ _u⁺(1,J'') \longrightarrow 3\,¹ _g⁺(0,J') \longrightarrow nl\,¹\Lambda _u⁺(0,J) transition scheme is used to study high n sodium dimer rydberg states. The spectrum is simplest when the intermediate state has J'=0 which implies J=1. Analysis of our data yield an ionization potential of 39478.13\pm 0.03cm^-1, implying a molecular ion dissociation energy of D₀⁰(Na₂⁺)=7914.19\pm 0.03cm^-1. The same transition scheme can be used to detect ultracold ground state molecules Na₂(v=0,J=0) and to produce ultracold ground state molecule ions Na₂⁺(v⁺=0,N⁺=0).