Role of Interactions in Rb87−K40 Bose-Fermi Mixtures in a 3D Optical Lattice
Th. Best, Sebastian Will, Ulrich Schneider +4 more
We investigate the effect of interspecies interaction on a degenerate mixture of bosonic 87Rb and fermionic 40K atoms in a three-dimensional optical lattice potential. Using a Feshbach resonance, the 87Rb-40K interaction is tuned over a wide range. Through an analysis of the 87Rb momentum distribution, we find a pronounced asymmetry between strong repulsion and strong attraction. In the latter case, we observe a marked shift in the superfluid to Mott insulator transition, which we attribute to a renormalization of the Bose-Hubbard parameters due to self-trapping.
arXiv:0807.4504•Physical Review Letters•Jan 23, 2009•160 citations