All-optical production of a degenerate mixture of 6Li and 40K and creation of heteronuclear molecules

TL;DR

This paper details an all-optical method to produce a degenerate mixture of 6Li and 40K atoms, enabling the formation of heteronuclear molecules through controlled cooling, state preparation, and magnetic field manipulation.

Contribution

It introduces a novel all-optical approach for preparing a degenerate Fermi-Fermi mixture of lithium and potassium, facilitating heteronuclear molecule creation.

Findings

Successful preparation of a double-degenerate Fermi-Fermi mixture.

Demonstration of heteronuclear molecule formation via magnetic field ramp.

Optimized procedures for trap loading and state preparation.

Abstract

We present the essential experimental steps of our all-optical approach to prepare a double-degenerate Fermi-Fermi mixture of 6Li and 40K atoms, which then serves as a starting point for molecule formation. We first describe the optimized trap loading procedures, the internal-state preparation of the sample, and the combined evaporative and sympathetic cooling process. We then discuss the preparation of the sample near an interspecies Feshbach resonance, and we demonstrate the formation of heteronuclear molecules by a magnetic field ramp across the resonance.