Preparation of a quantum degenerate mixture of ${}^{23}$Na${}^{40}$K molecules and ${}^{40}$K atoms

Abstract

We report on the preparation of a quantum degenerate mixture of ${}^{23}$Na${}^{40}$K molecules and ${}^{40}$K atoms. A deeply degenerate atomic mixture of ${}^{23}$Na and ${}^{40}$K atoms with a large number ratio ($N_F/N_B\approx 6$) is prepared by the mode-matching loading of atoms from a cloverleaf-type magnetic trap into a large-volume horizontal optical dipole trap and evaporative cooling in a large-volume three-beam optical dipole trap. About $3.0\times 10^4$ ${}^{23}$Na${}^{40}$K ground-state molecules are created through magneto-association followed by stimulated adiabatic Raman passage. The 2D density distribution of the molecules is fit to the Fermi-Dirac distribution with $T/T_F\approx 0.4-0.5$. In the atom-molecule mixture, the elastic collisions provide a thermalization mechanism for the molecules. In a few tens of milliseconds which are larger than the typical thermalization time, the degeneracy of the molecules is maintained, which may be due to the Pauli exclusion principle. The quantum degenerate mixture of ${}^{23}$Na${}^{40}$K molecules and ${}^{40}$K atoms can be used to study strongly interacting atom-molecule mixtures and to prepare ultracold triatomic molecular gases.

arXiv comment5 pages, 6 figures

References in corpus (38)

• Feshbach Resonances in Ultracold Gases
• A High Phase-Space-Density Gas of Polar Molecules
• Cold and Ultracold Molecules: Science, Technology, and Applications
• Production of cold molecules via magnetically tunable Feshbach resonances
• Ultracold dense samples of dipolar RbCs molecules in the rovibrational and hyperfine ground state
• Ultracold Dipolar Gas of Fermionic ${}^{23}$Na${}^{40}$K Molecules in their Absolute Ground State
• Magneto-optical trapping of a diatomic molecule
• Creation of ultracold ${}^{87}$RbCs molecules in the rovibrational ground state
• Creation of an ultracold gas of ground-state ${}^{23}{\mathrm{Na}}^{87}\mathrm{Rb}$ molecules
• A Fermi Degenerate Gas of Polar Molecules
• Long-Lived Ultracold Molecules with Electric and Magnetic Dipole Moments
• Evaporation of microwave-shielded polar molecules to quantum degeneracy
• Observation of magnetically tunable Feshbach resonances in ultracold ${}^{23}$Na${}^{40}$K+${}^{40}$K collisions
• Pauli Blocking of Collisions in a Quantum Degenerate Atomic Fermi Gas
• Statistical Aspects of Ultracold Resonant Scattering
• $\Lambda$-Enhanced Imaging of Molecules in an Optical Trap
• Rotation of quantum impurities in the presence of a many-body environment
• Photo-induced two-body loss of ultracold molecules
• Dipolar evaporation of reactive molecules to below the Fermi temperature
• Collisional Cooling of Ultracold Molecules
• Loss of ultracold RbCs molecules via optical excitation of long-lived two-body collision complexes
• Sub-Doppler Cooling and Compressed Trapping of YO Molecules at $\mu$K Temperatures
• Modeling the adiabatic creation of ultracold, polar ${}^{23}\mathrm{N}{\mathrm{a}}^{40}\mathrm{K}$ molecules
• Mixture of ultracold lithium and cesium atoms in an optical dipole trap
• Hydrodynamic Expansion of a Strongly Interacting Fermi-Fermi Mixture
• Deep laser cooling and efficient magnetic compression of molecules
• Control of reactive collisions by quantum interference
• Deformation of a quantum many-particle system by a rotating impurity
• Evidence for association of triatomic molecule in ultracold ${}^{23}$Na${}^{40}$K and ${}^{40}$K mixture
• Resonantly Interacting Fermi-Fermi Mixture of ${}^{161}$Dy and ${}^{40}$K
• Feshbach resonances in $p$-wave three-body recombination within Fermi-Fermi mixtures of open-shell ${}^6$Li and closed-shell ${}^{173}$Yb atoms
• Magnetic Feshbach resonances in collisions of ${}^{23}$Na${}^{40}$K with ${}^{40}$K
• Observation of interference between resonant and detuned STIRAP in the adiabatic creation of ${}^{23}$Na${}^{40}$K molecules
• Feshbach molecule formation in a Bose-Fermi mixture
• Thermalization and Sub-Poissonian Density Fluctuations in a Degenerate Molecular Fermi Gas
• Quantum spin state selectivity and magnetic tuning of ultracold chemical reactions of triplet alkali-metal dimers with alkali-metal atoms
• Complexes formed in collisions between ultracold alkali-metal diatomic molecules and atoms
• Resonant control of elastic collisions between ${}^{23}$Na${}^{40}$K molecules and ${}^{40}$K atoms

Cited by in corpus (10)

• Quantum state manipulation and cooling of ultracold molecules
• Blue-Detuned Magneto-Optical Trap of Molecules
• Ultracold field-linked tetratomic molecules
• Effective potential and superfluidity of microwave-dressed polar molecules
• Observation of photoassociation resonances in ultracold atom-molecule collisions
• Collisions of Spin-polarized YO Molecules for Single Partial Waves
• Intercombination line photoassociation spectroscopy of ${}^{87}$Rb${}^{170}$Yb
• Cold hybrid electrical-optical ion trap
• Formation of ultracold ${}^{39}$K${}^{133}$Cs Feshbach molecules
• Strongly dipolar molecular Bose-Einstein condensates: From few- to many-body physics