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Formation of bosonic $^{23}$Na$^{41}$K Feshbach molecules

Quantum Gases 2025-12-03 v1 Atomic Physics

Abstract

Ultracold Feshbach molecules are a crucial intermediate step for the creation of quantum degenerate gases of strongly dipolar molecules. After coherent transfer to the rovibrational ground state, these dimers can realize stable dipolar gases with strong, tunable long-range interactions. Here, we report the creation of bosonic 23^{23}Na41^{41}K Feshbach molecules by radio-frequency (RF) association. An RF pulse applied on the molecular side of an interspecies Feshbach resonance at 73.6(1)~G associates up to 1.1(1)×1041.1(1)\times10^4 molecules from a thermal mixture of 23^{23}Na and 41^{41}K atoms. Measurements of the binding energy reveal a broad resonance width of 5.1(2)~G, facilitating robust control over interspecies interactions. The molecule lifetime in the presence of background atoms exceeds 2~ms, extending to 7~ms after removal of 23^{23}Na. These results constitute a key step toward the production of ultracold 23^{23}Na41^{41}K ground state molecules for the exploration of novel many-body phenomena in strongly dipolar Bose gases.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2512.02950,
  title  = {Formation of bosonic $^{23}$Na$^{41}$K Feshbach molecules},
  author = {Sungjun Lee and Younghoon Lim and Jongyeol Kim and Jaeryeong Chang and Jee Woo Park},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2512.02950},
  year   = {2025}
}

Comments

8 pages, 6 figures