Long-lived Feshbach molecules in a 3D optical lattice

TL;DR

This paper reports the creation of long-lived 87Rb2 Feshbach molecules in a 3D optical lattice, achieving high efficiency and stability by shielding molecules from collisions and implementing a purification scheme.

Contribution

Demonstrated long-lived Feshbach molecules in a lattice with improved lifetime and purity, introducing a novel atom removal method for high-fidelity molecular samples.

Findings

Molecular lifetimes up to 700 ms achieved

Near 100% conversion efficiency from atom pairs to molecules

Effective removal of residual atoms for pure molecular samples

Abstract

We have created and trapped a pure sample of 87Rb2 Feshbach molecules in a three-dimensional optical lattice. Compared to previous experiments without a lattice we find dramatic improvements such as long lifetimes of up to 700 ms and a near unit efficiency for converting tightly confined atom pairs into molecules. The lattice shields the trapped molecules from collisions and thus overcomes the problem of inelastic decay by vibrational quenching. Furthermore, we have developed a novel purification scheme that removes residual atoms, resulting in a lattice in which individual sites are either empty or filled with a single molecule in the vibrational ground state of the lattice.