Production Efficiency of Ultracold Feshbach Molecules in Bosonic and Fermionic Systems

Abstract

We investigate the production efficiency of ultracold molecules in bosonic ${}^{85}$Rb and fermionic ${}^{40}$K when the magnetic field is swept across a Feshbach resonance. For adiabatic sweeps of the magnetic field, the conversion efficiency of each species is solely determined by the phase space density of the atomic cloud, in contrast to a number of theoretical predictions. Our novel model for the adiabatic pairing process, developed from general physical principles, accurately predicts the conversion efficiency for {\it both} ultracold gases of bosons and of fermions. In the non-adiabatic regime our measurements of the ${}^{85}$Rb molecule conversion efficiency follow a Landau Zener model, with a conversion efficiency that is characterized by the density divided by the time derivative of the magnetic field.

5 pages, 3 figures