Optically trapped Feshbach molecules of fermionic 161Dy and 40K

Abstract

We report on the preparation of a pure ultracold sample of bosonic DyK Feshbach molecules, which are composed of the fermionic isotopes 161Dy and 40K. Employing a magnetic sweep across a resonance located near 7.3 G, we produce up to 5000 molecules at a temperature of about 50 nK. For purification from the remaining atoms, we apply a Stern-Gerlach technique based on magnetic levitation of the molecules in a very weak optical dipole trap. With the trapped molecules we finally reach a high phase-space density of about 0.1. We measure the magnetic field dependence of the molecular binding energy and the magnetic moment, refining our knowledge of the resonance parameters. We also demonstrate a peculiar anisotropic expansion effect observed when the molecules are released from the trap and expand freely in the magnetic levitation field. Moreover, we identify an important lifetime limitation that is imposed by the 1064-nm infrared trap light itself and not by inelastic collisions. The light-induced decay rate is found to be proportional to the trap light intensity and the closed-channel fraction of the Feshbach molecule. These observations suggest a one-photon coupling to electronically excited states to limit the lifetime and point to the prospect of loss suppression by optimizing the wavelength of the trapping light. Our results represent important insights and experimental steps on the way to achieve quantum-degenerate samples of DyK molecules and novel superfluids based on mass-imbalanced fermion mixtures.

References in corpus (28)

• Many-Body Physics with Ultracold Gases
• Vortices and Superfluidity in a Strongly Interacting Fermi Gas
• Observation of Bose-Einstein Condensation of Molecules
• Weakly bound dimers of fermionic atoms
• Ultracold dense samples of dipolar RbCs molecules in the rovibrational and hyperfine ground state
• Molecular Probe of Pairing in the BEC-BCS Crossover
• Pure Gas of Optically Trapped Molecules Created from Fermionic Atoms
• Ultracold heteronuclear molecules in a 3D optical lattice
• Exploring an ultracold Fermi-Fermi mixture: Interspecies Feshbach resonances and scattering properties of 6Li and 40K
• Observation of molecules produced from a Bose-Einstein condensate
• Formation of Quantum-Degenerate Sodium Molecules
• Quantum degenerate two-species Fermi-Fermi mixture coexisting with a Bose-Einstein condensate
• Three-boson problem near a narrow Feshbach resonance
• Ultracold Fermionic Feshbach Molecules of ${}^{23}$Na${}^{40}$K
• Ultracold Heteronuclear Fermi-Fermi Molecules
• Low-energy three-body dynamics in binary quantum gases
• Diatomic molecules in ultracold Fermi gases - Novel composite bosons
• Association of ultracold double-species bosonic molecules
• Dissociation of ultracold molecules with Feshbach resonances
• Spectroscopy of Ultracold, Trapped Cesium Feshbach Molecules
• All-optical production of a degenerate mixture of 6Li and 40K and creation of heteronuclear molecules
• Formation of Ultracold NaRb Feshbach Molecules
• Association of molecules using a resonantly modulated magnetic field
• A High Phase-Space Density Gas of NaCs Feshbach Molecules
• Beyond-mean-field description of a trapped unitary Fermi gas with mass and population imbalance
• Lifetime of Feshbach dimers in a Fermi-Fermi mixture of ${}^6$Li and ${}^{40}$K
• Double-degenerate Fermi mixtures of ${}^6$Li and ${}^{53}$Cr atoms
• Observation of low-field Feshbach resonances between ${}^{161}$Dy and ${}^{40}$K

Cited by in corpus (9)

• Quantum mixtures of ultracold gases of neutral atoms
• Ultracold LiCr: a new pathway to quantum gases of paramagnetic polar molecules
• Few-fermion resonant tunneling and underbarrier trapping in asymmetric potentials
• Spin--spin interaction and magnetic Feshbach resonances in collisions of high-spin atoms with closed-shell atoms
• Dipole-Mode Spectrum and Hydrodynamic Crossover in a Resonantly Interacting Two-Species Fermion Mixture
• Optically trapped Feshbach molecules of fermionic ${}^{161}$Dy and ${}^{40}$K: Role of light-induced and collisional losses
• Van der Waals coefficients for interactions of dysprosium and erbium atoms with alkali-metal and alkaline-earth-metal atoms
• Tune-out wavelength for the thulium atom near 576 nm
• Weighted Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov method for interacting fermions: An application to ultracold Fermi superfluids