Simultaneous magneto-optical trapping of lithium and ytterbium atoms towards production of ultracold polar molecules

Abstract

We have successfully implemented the first simultaneous magneto-optical trapping (MOT) of lithium ( 6 Li) and ytterbium ( 174 Yb) atoms, towards production of ultracold polar molecules of LiYb. For this purpose, we developed the dual atomic oven which contains both atomic species as an atom source and successfully observed the spectra of the Li and Yb atoms in the atomic beams from the dual atomic oven. We constructed the vacuum chamber including the glass cell with the windows made of zinc selenium (ZnSe) for the CO 2 lasers, which are the useful light sources of optical trapping for evaporative and sympathetic cooling. Typical atom numbers and temperatures in the compressed MOT are 7×10 3 atoms, 640 µK for 6 Li, 7×10 4 atoms and 60 µK for 174 Yb, respectively.Send offprint requests to: M. Okano,

Structure and spectroscopy of ground and excited states of LiYb

“…15 Photoassociation will likely be the preferred technique, for which favorable transitions are necessary. Our calculated FC factors, expressed as twodimensional intensity plots, are displayed in Fig.…”

“…The weakly bound LiYb molecules are expected to be collisionally stable and promising for the study of mass-imbalanced three-body systems such as Efimov trimer states. 14 Experimental production of cold LiYb is in progress 15 and theoretical input is needed.…”

Ground- and excited-state properties of the polar and paramagnetic RbSr molecule: A comparative study

“…That might allow the experimentalist to modify the scattering length in the ultracold mixture of Rb and Sr and control the behaviour of quantum gas of such atoms. It is worth mentioning that several other similar species are subject to intense ongoing research, like YbLi [30][31][32][33][34] and YbRb [35][36][37].…”

Magnetically Tunable Feshbach Resonances in Ultracold Li-Yb Mixtures

“…Among the most promising candidates for this are molecules formed from an alkali-metal atom and a 1 S atom such as an alkaline earth or Yb. A number of experimental groups are studying ultracold mixtures in which such molecules might be formed, including Rb þ Yb [11] and Li þ Yb [12][13][14].…”