Photoassociation of spin polarized Chromium

We report the homonuclear photoassociation (PA) of ultracold 52Cr atoms in an optical dipole trap. This constitutes the first measurement of PA in an element with total electron spin S~>1. Although Cr, with its 7S3 ground and 7P4,3,2 excited states, is expected to have a complicated PA spectrum we show that a spin polarized cloud exhibits a remarkably simple PA spectrum when circularly polarized light is applied. Over a scan range of 20 GHz below the 7P3 asymptote we observe two distinct vibrational series each following a LeRoy-Bernstein law for a C3/R3 potential with excellent agreement. We determine the C3 coefficients of the Hund's case c) relativistic adiabatic potentials to be -1.83±0.02 a.u. and -1.46±0.01a.u.. Theoretical non-rotating Movre-Pichler calculations enable a first assignment of the series to Ω=6u and 5g potential energy curves. In a different set of experiments we disturb the selection rules by a transverse magnetic field which leads to additional PA series.