The route towards a Bose–Einstein condensate (BEC) of dipolar molecules requires the ability to efficiently associate dimers of different chemical species and transfer them to the stable rovibrational ground state. Here, we report on recent spectroscopic measurements of two weakly bound molecular levels and newly observed narrow d-wave Feshbach resonances. The data are used to improve the collisional model for the Bose–Bose mixture 41 K 87 Rb, one of the most promising candidates to create a molecular dipolar BEC.
The route towards a Bose–Einstein condensate (BEC) of dipolar molecules requires the ability to efficiently associate dimers of different chemical species and transfer them to the stable rovibrational ground state. Here, we report on recent spectroscopic measurements of two weakly bound molecular levels and newly observed narrow d-wave Feshbach resonances. The data are used to improve the collisional model for the Bose–Bose mixture 41 K 87 Rb, one of the most promising candidates to create a molecular dipolar BEC.
We report on the creation of heterospecies bosonic molecules, associated from an ultracold Bose-Bose mixture of 41K and 87Rb, by using a resonantly modulated magnetic field close to two Feshbach resonances. We measure the binding energy of the weakly bound molecular states versus the Feshbach field and compare our results to theoretical predictions. We observe the broadening and asymmetry of the association spectrum due to the thermal distribution of the atoms and a frequency shift occurring when the binding energy depends nonlinearly on the Feshbach field. A simple model is developed to quantitatively describe the association process. This work represents a required step toward Bose-Einstein condensates of dipolar molecules.
We have successfully prepared an optically trapped ultracold mixture of 23Na and 87Rb atoms and studied their interspecies Feshbach resonances. Using two different spin combinations, several s- and p-wave resonances are identified by observing high inelastic losses and temperature increases for both species near resonant magnetic field values. The two s-wave resonances observed below 500 G between atoms in their lowest-energy levels are possible candidates for Feshbach molecule association. Our results are well characterized by a coupled-channel model which also refines the ground-state interaction potentials between 23Na and 87Rb. This work opens up the prospect for preparing ultracold ensembles of ground-state bosonic NaRb molecules which are chemically stable and can provide strong dipolar interactions.
Ultracold bialkali polar molecules play a leading part at the frontline of quantum physics. They recently attract a lot of attention in the field of ultracold quantum chemistry, quantum many-body physics and quantum simulations. The key for their success is the rich internal level structure with rotational and vibrational degrees of freedom and their large electric dipole moments. Still, only a handful of molecular species are available at ultracold temperatures until now, although it is highly desirable to produce new molecular species to further expand the range of applications. Besides direct laser cooling methods for molecules, the assembly of heteronuclear ground-state molecules from ultracold atomic mixtures is the most promising approach for the creation of polar molecules. It includes the formation of weakly bound Feshbach molecules from the diatomic mixture and the subsequent two-photon stimulated Raman adiabatic passage (STIRAP) transfer to the rovibrational ground state. This creation strategy has been successfully demonstrated for the first time in the pioneering experiments at JILA with ultracold 40K87Rb molecules. Since then, only a few more molecular species from different alkali atoms have been created, namely 6Li23Na, 23Na40K, 23Na87Rb and 87Rb133Cs. In this thesis, I report the successful creation of a new species of ultracold polar ground-state molecules: 23Na39K. Starting from an ultracold mixture of bosonic 23Na and 39K atoms, weakly bound molecules are created. For this purpose, a Feshbach resonance in a high angular momentum scattering channel is chosen, experimentally identified and characterized. Close to this resonance the weakly bound Feshbach molecules are formed using resonant radio frequency radiation. For the two-photon ground-state transfer, a unique, highly specialized two-color laser system is designed and realized. It is used for one- and two-photon spectroscopy to identify the relevant transitions for the ground-state transfer. Based on the obtained data, a local model of the singlet-triplet mixed excited state manifolds is developed, with which the hyperfine structure and the magnetic field dependence is predicted with high accuracy. According to these findings, a suitable pathway to a single hyperfine ground state is chosen considering selection rules and experimental conditions such as laser polarization and beam alignment. To precisely determine the two-photon resonance condition for STIRAP, electromagnetically induced transparency measurements are performed. The ground-state transfer is then performed using STIRAP. The experimental findings regarding the STIRAP are successfully supported theoretically by a model based on a five-level master equation. The pure molecular gas shows evidence for two-body dominated loss mechanisms, such as sticky four-body collisions. The molecule-atom mixture of 23Na39K+39K reveals an unexpectedly low loss rate coefficient although sticky three-body collisions are assumed to occur. This behavior demands further investigations regarding different hyperfine collisional chan-nels and magnetic field regions.
Abstract Recent advances in the precise control of ultracold atomic systems have led to the realisation of Bose–Einstein condensates (BECs) and degenerate Fermi gases. An important challenge is to extend this level of control to more complicated molecular systems. One route for producing ultracold molecules is to form them from the atoms in a BEC. For example, a two-photon stimulated Raman transition in a 87Rb BEC has been used to produce 87Rb2 molecules in a single rotational-vibrational state1, and ultracold molecules have also been formed2 through photoassociation of a sodium BEC. Although the coherence properties of such systems have not hitherto been probed, the prospect of creating a superposition of atomic and molecular condensates has initiated much theoretical work3, 4, 5, 6, 7. Here we make use of a time-varying magnetic field near a Feshbach resonance8, 9, 10, 11, 12 to produce coherent coupling between atoms and molecules in a 85Rb BEC. A mixture of atomic and molecular states is created and probed by sudden changes in the magnetic field, which lead to oscillations in the number of atoms that remain in the condensate. The oscillation frequency, measured over a large range of magnetic fields, is in excellent agreement with the theoretical molecular binding energy, indicating that we have created a quantum superposition of atoms and diatomic molecules—two chemically different species.
An Ultracold Gas of Bosonic 23Na39K Ground-State Molecules
We report the creation of ultracold bosonic dipolar 23Na39K molecules in their absolute rovibrational ground state. Starting from weakly bound molecules immersed in an ultracold atomic mixture, we coherently transfer the dimers to the rovibrational ground state using an adiabatic Raman passage. We analyze the two-body decay in a pure molecular sample and in molecule-atom mixtures and find an unexpectedly low two-body decay coefficient for collisions between molecules and 39K atoms in a selected hyperfine state. The preparation of bosonic 23Na39K molecules opens the way for future comparisons between fermionic and bosonic ultracold ground-state molecules of the same chemical species.
We report the creation of ultracold bosonic dipolar ^{23}Na^{39}K molecules in their absolute rovibrational ground state. Starting from weakly bound molecules immersed in an ultracold atomic mixture, we coherently transfer the dimers to the rovibrational ground state using an adiabatic Raman passage. We analyze the two-body decay in a pure molecular sample and in molecule-atom mixtures and find an unexpectedly low two-body decay coefficient for collisions between molecules and ^{39}K atoms in a selected hyperfine state. The preparation of bosonic ^{23}Na^{39}K molecules opens the way for future comparisons between fermionic and bosonic ultracold ground-state molecules of the same chemical species.