Ultracold Heteronuclear Fermi-Fermi Molecules

TL;DR

This paper reports the first creation of ultracold heteronuclear molecules from two fermionic species, 6Li and 40K, achieving high association efficiency and measuring their increased lifetimes near resonance.

Contribution

First demonstration of ultracold bosonic heteronuclear molecules from two fermionic species with high efficiency and lifetime measurements.

Findings

Created up to 4x10^4 molecules with 50% efficiency

Measured molecule lifetimes exceeding 100 ms near resonance

Demonstrated direct imaging of heteronuclear molecules

Abstract

We report on the first creation of ultracold bosonic heteronuclear molecules of two fermionic species, 6Li and 40K, by a magnetic field sweep across an interspecies s-wave Feshbach resonance. This allows us to associate up to 4x10^4 molecules with high efficiencies of up to 50%. Using direct imaging of the molecules, we measure increased lifetimes of the molecules close to resonance of more than 100 ms in the molecule-atom mixture stored in a harmonic trap.