- Letter
- Open Access
High phase-space density gas of NaCs Feshbach molecules
Phys. Rev. Research 4, L022019 – Published 25 April, 2022
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevResearch.4.L022019
Abstract
We report on the creation of ultracold gases of bosonic Feshbach molecules of NaCs. The molecules are associated from overlapping gases of Na and Cs using a Feshbach resonance at . We characterize the Feshbach resonance using bound-state spectroscopy, in conjunction with a coupled-channel calculation. By varying the temperature and atom numbers of the initial atomic mixtures, we demonstrate the association of NaCs gases over a wide dynamic range of molecule numbers and temperatures, reaching 70 nK for our coldest systems and a phase-space density near 0.1. This is an important stepping stone for the creation of degenerate gases of strongly dipolar NaCs molecules in their absolute ground state.
Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)
Article Text
Supplemental Material
References (63)
- M. Greiner, C. A. Regal, and D. S. Jin, Emergence of a molecular Bose–Einstein condensate from a fermi gas, Nature (London) 426, 537 (2003).
- M. W. Zwierlein, C. A. Stan, C. H. Schunck, S. M. F. Raupach, S. Gupta, Z. Hadzibabic, and W. Ketterle, Observation of Bose-Einstein Condensation of Molecules, Phys. Rev. Lett. 91, 250401 (2003).
- S. Jochim, M. Bartenstein, A. Altmeyer, G. Hendl, S. Riedl, C. Chin, J. H. Denschlag, and R. Grimm, Bose-Einstein condensation of molecules, Science 302, 2101 (2003).
- Z. Zhang, L. Chen, K.-X. Yao, and C. Chin, Transition from an atomic to a molecular Bose–Einstein condensate, Nature (London) 592, 708 (2021).
- C. A. Regal, M. Greiner, and D. S. Jin, Observation of Resonance Condensation of Fermionic Atom Pairs, Phys. Rev. Lett. 92, 040403 (2004).
- M. W. Zwierlein, C. A. Stan, C. H. Schunck, S. M. F. Raupach, A. J. Kerman, and W. Ketterle, Condensation of Pairs of Fermionic Atoms near a Feshbach Resonance, Phys. Rev. Lett. 92, 120403 (2004).
- G. B. Partridge, K. E. Strecker, R. I. Kamar, M. W. Jack, and R. G. Hulet, Molecular Probe of Pairing in the BEC-BCS Crossover, Phys. Rev. Lett. 95, 020404 (2005).
- M. W. Zwierlein, J. R. Abo-Shaeer, A. Schirotzek, C. H. Schunck, and W. Ketterle, Vortices and superfluidity in a strongly interacting Fermi gas, Nature (London) 435, 1047 (2005).
- A. Schirotzek, C.-H. Wu, A. Sommer, and M. W. Zwierlein, Observation of Fermi Polarons in a Tunable Fermi Liquid of Ultracold Atoms, Phys. Rev. Lett. 102, 230402 (2009).
- S. Palzer, C. Zipkes, C. Sias, and M. Köhl, Quantum Transport through a Tonks-Girardeau Gas, Phys. Rev. Lett. 103, 150601 (2009).
- S. Nascimbène, N. Navon, K. J. Jiang, L. Tarruell, M. Teichmann, J. McKeever, F. Chevy, and C. Salomon, Collective Oscillations of an Imbalanced Fermi Gas: Axial Compression Modes and Polaron Effective Mass, Phys. Rev. Lett. 103, 170402 (2009).
- K.-K. Ni, S. Ospelkaus, M. De Miranda, A. Pe'Er, B. Neyenhuis, J. Zirbel, S. Kotochigova, P. Julienne, D. Jin, and J. Ye, A high phase-space-density gas of polar molecules, Science 322, 231 (2008).
- J. G. Danzl, M. J. Mark, E. Haller, M. Gustavsson, R. Hart, J. Aldegunde, J. M. Hutson, and H.-C. Nägerl, An ultracold high-density sample of rovibronic ground-state molecules in an optical lattice, Nat. Phys. 6, 265 (2010).
- L. D. Carr, D. DeMille, R. V. Krems, and J. Ye, Cold and ultracold molecules: science, technology and applications, New J. Phys. 11, 055049 (2009).
- T. Lahaye, C. Menotti, L. Santos, M. Lewenstein, and T. Pfau, The physics of dipolar bosonic quantum gases, Rep. Prog. Phys. 72, 126401 (2009).
- M. A. Baranov, M. Dalmonte, G. Pupillo, and P. Zoller, Condensed matter theory of dipolar quantum gases, Chem. Rev. 112, 5012 (2012).
- A. Micheli, G. Brennen, and P. Zoller, A toolbox for lattice-spin models with polar molecules, Nat. Phys. 2, 341 (2006).
- H. P. Büchler, E. Demler, M. Lukin, A. Micheli, N. Prokof'ev, G. Pupillo, and P. Zoller, Strongly Correlated 2D Quantum Phases with Cold Polar Molecules: Controlling the Shape of the Interaction Potential, Phys. Rev. Lett. 98, 060404 (2007).
- B. Capogrosso-Sansone, C. Trefzger, M. Lewenstein, P. Zoller, and G. Pupillo, Quantum Phases of Cold Polar Molecules in 2D Optical Lattices, Phys. Rev. Lett. 104, 125301 (2010).
- D. DeMille, Quantum Computation with Trapped Polar Molecules, Phys. Rev. Lett. 88, 067901 (2002).
- C. Ospelkaus, S. Ospelkaus, L. Humbert, P. Ernst, K. Sengstock, and K. Bongs, Ultracold Heteronuclear Molecules in a 3D Optical Lattice, Phys. Rev. Lett. 97, 120402 (2006).
- C. Weber, G. Barontini, J. Catani, G. Thalhammer, M. Inguscio, and F. Minardi, Association of ultracold double-species bosonic molecules, Phys. Rev. A 78, 061601(R) (2008).
- M. P. Köppinger, D. J. McCarron, D. L. Jenkin, P. K. Molony, H.-W. Cho, S. L. Cornish, C. R. Le Sueur, C. L. Blackley, and J. M. Hutson, Production of optically trapped Feshbach molecules, Phys. Rev. A 89, 033604 (2014).
- T. Takekoshi, L. Reichsöllner, A. Schindewolf, J. M. Hutson, C. R. Le Sueur, O. Dulieu, F. Ferlaino, R. Grimm, and H.-C. Nägerl, Ultracold Dense Samples of Dipolar RbCs Molecules in the Rovibrational and Hyperfine Ground State, Phys. Rev. Lett. 113, 205301 (2014).
- C.-H. Wu, J. W. Park, P. Ahmadi, S. Will, and M. W. Zwierlein, Ultracold Fermionic Feshbach Molecules of , Phys. Rev. Lett. 109, 085301 (2012).
- A.-C. Voigt, M. Taglieber, L. Costa, T. Aoki, W. Wieser, T. W. Hänsch, and K. Dieckmann, Ultracold Heteronuclear Fermi-Fermi Molecules, Phys. Rev. Lett. 102, 020405 (2009).
- F. Wang, X. He, X. Li, B. Zhu, J. Chen, and D. Wang, Formation of ultracold Feshbach molecules, New J. Phys. 17, 035003 (2015).
- M.-S. Heo, T. T. Wang, C. A. Christensen, T. M. Rvachov, D. A. Cotta, J.-H. Choi, Y.-R. Lee, and W. Ketterle, Formation of ultracold fermionic NaLi Feshbach molecules, Phys. Rev. A 86, 021602(R) (2012).
- L. De Marco, G. Valtolina, K. Matsuda, W. G. Tobias, J. P. Covey, and J. Ye, A degenerate Fermi gas of polar molecules, Science 363, 853 (2019).
- M. Duda, X.-Y. Chen, A. Schindewolf, R. Bause, J. von Milczewski, R. Schmidt, I. Bloch, and X.-Y. Luo, Transition from a polaronic condensate to a degenerate Fermi gas of heteronuclear molecules, arXiv:2111.04301.
- V. A. Yurovsky, A. Ben-Reuven, P. S. Julienne, and C. J. Williams, Atom loss from Bose-Einstein condensates due to Feshbach resonance, Phys. Rev. A 60, R765 (1999).
- D. S. Petrov, C. Salomon, and G. V. Shlyapnikov, Weakly Bound Dimers of Fermionic Atoms, Phys. Rev. Lett. 93, 090404 (2004).
- J. He, X. Ye, J. Lin, M. Guo, G. Quéméner, and D. Wang, Observation of resonant dipolar collisions in ultracold rotational mixtures, Phys. Rev. Research 3, 013016 (2021).
- M. Aymar and O. Dulieu, Calculation of accurate permanent dipole moments of the lowest states of heteronuclear alkali dimers using extended basis sets, J. Chem. Phys. 122, 204302 (2005).
- J. P. Shaffer, W. Chalupczak, and N. P. Bigelow, Photoassociative Ionization of Heteronuclear Molecules in a Novel Two-Species Magneto-optical Trap, Phys. Rev. Lett. 82, 1124 (1999).
- J. Kleinert, C. Haimberger, P. J. Zabawa, and N. P. Bigelow, Trapping of Ultracold Polar Molecules with a Thin-Wire Electrostatic Trap, Phys. Rev. Lett. 99, 143002 (2007).
- C. Haimberger, J. Kleinert, P. Zabawa, A. Wakim, and N. Bigelow, Formation of ultracold, highly polar NaCs molecules, New J. Phys. 11, 055042 (2009).
- P. Zabawa, A. Wakim, M. Haruza, and N. P. Bigelow, Formation of ultracold NaCs molecules via coupled photoassociation channels, Phys. Rev. A 84, 061401(R) (2011).
- L. Liu, J. Hood, Y. Yu, J. Zhang, N. Hutzler, T. Rosenband, and K.-K. Ni, Building one molecule from a reservoir of two atoms, Science 360, 900 (2018).
- J. T. Zhang, Y. Yu, W. B. Cairncross, K. Wang, L. R. B. Picard, J. D. Hood, Y.-W. Lin, J. M. Hutson, and K.-K. Ni, Forming a Single Molecule by Magnetoassociation in an Optical Tweezer, Phys. Rev. Lett. 124, 253401 (2020).
- W. B. Cairncross, J. T. Zhang, L. R. B. Picard, Y. Yu, K. Wang, and K.-K. Ni, Assembly of a Rovibrational Ground State Molecule in an Optical Tweezer, Phys. Rev. Lett. 126, 123402 (2021).
- C. Warner, A. Z. Lam, N. Bigagli, H. C. Liu, I. Stevenson, and S. Will, Overlapping Bose-Einstein condensates of and , Phys. Rev. A 104, 033302 (2021).
- See Supplemental Material at http://link.aps.org/supplemental/10.1103/PhysRevResearch.4.L022019 for details on the coarse search of the Feshbach resonance via trap loss spectroscopy, imaging of Feshbach molecules, measurement of the molecular binding energy, measurement of molecule temperature prior to dissociation, measurement of mean kinetic energy versus ramp speed, and calculation of the molecular phase-space density.
- O. Docenko, M. Tamanis, J. Zaharova, R. Ferber, A. Pashov, H. Knöckel, and E. Tiemann, The coupling of the and states of the atom pair Na + Cs and modelling cold collisions, J. Phys. B: At., Mol. Opt. Phys. 39, S929 (2006).
- The magnetic moment of Na (Cs) is and the magnetic moment of NaCs Feshbach molecules is .
- S. T. Thompson, E. Hodby, and C. E. Wieman, Ultracold Molecule Production via a Resonant Oscillating Magnetic Field, Phys. Rev. Lett. 95, 190404 (2005).
- S. Knoop, T. Schuster, R. Scelle, A. Trautmann, J. Appmeier, M. K. Oberthaler, E. Tiesinga, and E. Tiemann, Feshbach spectroscopy and analysis of the interaction potentials of ultracold sodium, Phys. Rev. A 83, 042704 (2011).
- M. Berninger, A. Zenesini, B. Huang, W. Harm, H.-C. Nägerl, F. Ferlaino, R. Grimm, P. S. Julienne, and J. M. Hutson, Feshbach resonances, weakly bound molecular states, and coupled-channel potentials for cesium at high magnetic fields, Phys. Rev. A 87, 032517 (2013).
- T. Mukaiyama, J. R. Abo-Shaeer, K. Xu, J. K. Chin, and W. Ketterle, Dissociation and Decay of Ultracold Sodium Molecules, Phys. Rev. Lett. 92, 180402 (2004).
- S. Dürr, T. Volz, and G. Rempe, Dissociation of ultracold molecules with Feshbach resonances, Phys. Rev. A 70, 031601(R) (2004).
- K. K. Voges, P. Gersema, T. Hartmann, T. A. Schulze, A. Zenesini, and S. Ospelkaus, Formation of ultracold weakly bound dimers of bosonic , Phys. Rev. A 101, 042704 (2020).
- E. Hodby, S. T. Thompson, C. A. Regal, M. Greiner, A. C. Wilson, D. S. Jin, E. A. Cornell, and C. E. Wieman, Production Efficiency of Ultracold Feshbach Molecules in Bosonic and Fermionic Systems, Phys. Rev. Lett. 94, 120402 (2005).
- Recently, we have implemented a faster optical clean-out procedure and observe an enhancement of the detectable molecule number by at least a factor of 2.
- K. Matsuda, L. De Marco, J.-R. Li, W. G. Tobias, G. Valtolina, G. Quéméner, and J. Ye, Resonant collisional shielding of reactive molecules using electric fields, Science 370, 1324 (2020).
- J.-R. Li, W. G. Tobias, K. Matsuda, C. Miller, G. Valtolina, L. De Marco, R. R. Wang, L. Lassablière, G. Quéméner, J. L. Bohn et al., Tuning of dipolar interactions and evaporative cooling in a three-dimensional molecular quantum gas, Nat. Phys. 17, 1144 (2021).
- L. Anderegg, S. Burchesky, Y. Bao, S. S. Yu, T. Karman, E. Chae, K.-K. Ni, W. Ketterle, and J. M. Doyle, Observation of microwave shielding of ultracold molecules, Science 373, 779 (2021).
- A. Schindewolf, R. Bause, X.-Y. Chen, M. Duda, T. Karman, I. Bloch, and X.-Y. Luo, Evaporation of microwave-shielded polar molecules to quantum degeneracy, arXiv:2201.05143.
- M. L. González-Martínez, J. L. Bohn, and G. Quéméner, Adimensional theory of shielding in ultracold collisions of dipolar rotors, Phys. Rev. A 96, 032718 (2017).
- T. Karman and J. M. Hutson, Microwave Shielding of Ultracold Polar Molecules, Phys. Rev. Lett. 121, 163401 (2018).
- L. Lassablière and G. Quéméner, Controlling the Scattering Length of Ultracold Dipolar Molecules, Phys. Rev. Lett. 121, 163402 (2018).
- The fit function for two-body decay has the form , where is the initial molecule number. The average density of a thermal gas in a harmonic trap is given by , where is the peak density.
- S. A. Moses, J. P. Covey, M. T. Miecnikowski, B. Yan, B. Gadway, J. Ye, and D. S. Jin, Creation of a low-entropy quantum gas of polar molecules in an optical lattice, Science 350, 659 (2015).
- L. Reichsöllner, A. Schindewolf, T. Takekoshi, R. Grimm, and H.-C. Nägerl, Quantum Engineering of a Low-Entropy Gas of Heteronuclear Bosonic Molecules in an Optical Lattice, Phys. Rev. Lett. 118, 073201 (2017).