Magnetic field dependent interactions in an ultracold Li-Yb($^3$P$_2$) mixture

TL;DR

This study investigates magnetic field-dependent inelastic collisions in an ultracold Li-Yb mixture, revealing Feshbach resonances linked to anisotropic interactions, which could advance control of heteronuclear quantum systems.

Contribution

First observation of magnetic field-dependent inelastic effects and Feshbach resonances in an alkali-alkaline earth-like atom mixture, supported by ab-initio calculations.

Findings

Inelastic rate coefficient varies by nearly an order of magnitude over 100-520G.

Identification of interspecies Feshbach resonances linked to anisotropic interactions.

Experimental results agree with theoretical ab-initio predictions.

Abstract

Magnetic Feshbach resonances have allowed great success in the production of ultracold diatomic molecules from bi-alkali mixtures, but have so far eluded observation in mixtures of alkali and alkaline-earth-like atoms. Inelastic collisional properties of ultracold atomic systems exhibit resonant behavior in the vicinity of such resonances, providing a detection signature. We study magnetic field dependent inelastic effects via atom loss spectroscopy in an ultracold heteronuclear mixture of alkali $^6$Li in the ground state and alkaline-earth-like $^{174}$Yb in an excited electronic metastable state ($^3$P$_2$, m$_J$ = -1). We observe a variation of the interspecies inelastic two-body rate coefficient by nearly one order of magnitude over a 100-520G magnetic field range. By comparing to ab-initio calculations we link our observations to interspecies Feshbach resonances arising from anisotropic interactions in this novel collisional system.