Photoassociation intensities and radiative trap loss in lithium

We interpret measurements of photoassociative spectroscopy in a gas of lithium atoms at ultralow temperatures in which photons are absorbed into high vibrational levels of excited electronic singlet and triplet states of Li₂. The excited vibrational levels decay by spontaneous emission into the vibrational continuum and the discrete vibrational levels of the ground singlet and lowest triplet electronic states. Spontaneous emission into discrete levels produces molecules that are no longer trapped, and decay into the vibrational continuum can produce atoms with sufficient kinetic energy to escape the trap. We present values of the efficiencies of trap loss by radiative excitation as a function of the trap depth for individual excited vibrational levels of the singlet and triplet states of the ⁶Li₂ and ⁷Li₂ molecules.