Seeßelberg, F., Buchheim, N., Lu, Z., Schneider, T., Luo, X., Tiemann, E., Bloch, I., and Gohle, C.
In this work we model and realize stimulated Raman adiabatic passage (STIRAP) in the diatomic $\mathrm{^{23}Na^{40}K}$ molecule from weakly bound Feshbach molecules to the rovibronic ground state via the $\left|v_d=5,J=\Omega=1\right\rangle$ excited state in the $d^3\Pi$ electronic potential. We demonstrate how to set up a quantitative model for polar molecule production by taking into account the rich internal structure of the molecules and the coupling laser phase noise. We find excellent agreement between the model predictions and the experiment, demonstrating the applicability of the model in the search of an ideal STIRAP transfer path. In total we produce 5000 fermionic groundstate molecules. The typical phase-space density of the sample is 0.03 and induced dipole moments of up to 0.54 Debye could be observed., Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures Version 2: Fixed a few typos, elaborated more on the differences between different choices of intermediate state, clarified H\"onl-London factor, added a intuitive explanation of the benefits of detuned STIRAP, elaborated on realized dipole moments in diatomics, compared phase-space density reducing processes in the whole molecule creation process, added two more references