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Ultracold Dipolar Gas of Fermionic $^{23}$Na$^{40}$K Molecules in their Absolute Ground State

Quantum Gases 2015-07-16 v1 Atomic Physics Chemical Physics Quantum Physics

Abstract

We report on the creation of an ultracold dipolar gas of fermionic 23^{23}Na40^{40}K molecules in their absolute rovibrational and hyperfine ground state. Starting from weakly bound Feshbach molecules, we demonstrate hyperfine resolved two-photon transfer into the singlet X1Σ+v=0,J=0{\rm X}^1\Sigma^+ |v{=}0,J{=}0\rangle ground state, coherently bridging a binding energy difference of 0.65 eV via stimulated rapid adiabatic passage. The spin-polarized, nearly quantum degenerate molecular gas displays a lifetime longer than 2.5 s, highlighting NaK's stability against two-body chemical reactions. A homogeneous electric field is applied to induce a dipole moment of up to 0.8 Debye. With these advances, the exploration of many-body physics with strongly dipolar Fermi gases of 23^{23}Na40^{40}K molecules is in experimental reach.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1505.00473,
  title  = {Ultracold Dipolar Gas of Fermionic $^{23}$Na$^{40}$K Molecules in their Absolute Ground State},
  author = {Jee Woo Park and Sebastian A. Will and Martin W. Zwierlein},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1505.00473},
  year   = {2015}
}

Comments

5 pages, 5 figures