Ultracold Dipolar Gas of Fermionic [superscript 23]Na[superscript 40]K Molecules in Their Absolute Ground State

• Main Authors: Park, Jee Woo (Contributor), Will, Sebastian (Contributor), Zwierlein, Martin Wolfram (Contributor)
• Other Authors: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics (Contributor), Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Research Laboratory of Electronics (Contributor), MIT-Harvard Center for Ultracold Atoms (Contributor)
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: American Physical Society, 2015-05-19T13:40:03Z.
• Subjects: Article
• Online Access: Get fulltext

We report on the creation of an ultracold dipolar gas of fermionic [superscript 23]Na[superscript 40]Kmolecules in their absolute rovibrational and hyperfine ground state. Starting from weakly bound Feshbach molecules, we demonstrate hyperfine resolved two-photon transfer into the singlet X[superscript 1]Σ[superscript +]|v = 0,J = 0⟩ 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 D. With these advances, the exploration of many-body physics with strongly dipolar Fermi gases of [superscript 23]Na[superscript 40]K molecules is within experimental reach.
National Science Foundation (U.S.)
United States. Air Force Office of Scientific Research. Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers
United States. Army Research Office
United States. Army Research Office. Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative
United States. Air Force Office of Scientific Research. Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative
David & Lucile Packard Foundation