Collisional Properties of p-Wave Feshbach Molecules

TL;DR

This paper reports the detection of p-wave Feshbach molecules in lithium-6, measuring their inelastic and elastic collision rates to understand their collisional properties.

Contribution

It presents the first measurement of collisional properties of p-wave Feshbach molecules in lithium-6, including inelastic and elastic collision rates.

Findings

Detected p-wave Feshbach molecules in all spin state combinations.

Measured inelastic collision rates of the molecules.

Determined elastic collision rates from thermalization measurements.

Abstract

We detected the formation of p-wave Feshbach molecules for all three combinations of the two lowest atomic spin states of 6Li. By creating a pure molecular sample in an optical trap, we measured the inelastic collision rates of p-wave molecules. The elastic collision rate was measured from the thermalization rate of a breathing mode excited spontaneously upon molecular formation.