arXiv:0709.4554 · Physical Review A
Feshbach resonances in mixtures of ultracold Li6 and Rb87 gases
Benjamin Deh, C. Marzok, Claus Zimmermann, Ph. W. Courteille
Abstract
We report on the observation of two Feshbach resonances in collisions between ultracold $^{6}\mathrm{Li}$ and $^{87}\mathrm{Rb}$ atoms in their respective hyperfine ground states $\ensuremath{\mid}F,{m}_{F}⟩=\ensuremath{\mid}1∕2,1∕2⟩$ and \ensuremath{\mid}1,1⟩. The resonances show up as trap losses for the $^{6}\mathrm{Li}$ cloud induced by inelastic Li-Rb-Rb three-body collisions. The magnetic field values where they occur represent important benchmarks for an accurate determination of the interspecies interaction potentials. A broad Feshbach resonance located at $1066.92\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}\mathrm{G}$ opens interesting prospects for the creation of ultracold heteronuclear molecules. We furthermore observe a strong enhancement of the narrow $p$-wave Feshbach resonance in collisions of $^{6}\mathrm{Li}$ atoms at $158.55\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}\mathrm{G}$ in the presence of a dense $^{87}\mathrm{Rb}$ cloud. The effect of the $^{87}\mathrm{Rb}$ cloud is to introduce Li-Li-Rb three-body collisions occurring at a higher rate than Li-Li-Li collisions.