Frankfurt 2006 – scientific programme
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Q: Quantenoptik und Photonik
Q 38: Quantengase IV
Q 38.7: Talk
Wednesday, March 15, 2006, 12:10–12:25, HVI
Feshbach molecules from an atomic Mott insulator — •Niels Syassen, Thomas Volz, Dominik Bauer, Eberhard Hansis, Stephan Dürr, and Gerhard Rempe — Max-Planck-Institut für Quantenoptik, Hans-Kopfermann-Str. 1, 85748 Garching, Germany
Feshbach molecules from bosonic atomic species have proven to be very
unstable with respect to inelastic collisions [1].
As a result, the typical lifetime observed for a cloud of ultracold 87Rb2
molecules stored in an optical dipole trap is limited to a few
milliseconds.
Here, we report on the observation of long-lived Feshbach molecules in
an optical lattice. A BEC of 87Rb atoms is loaded into the
lowest Bloch band of a 3D optical lattice operated at a
wavelength of 830 nm. By ramping up the lattice depth, the atomic
gas enters the Mott insulator regime. A magnetic-field ramp through
the Feshbach resonance at 1007 G creates molecules [2].
Lattice sites initially occupied with more than 2 atoms
experience fast inelastic collisional losses. The observed lifetime of
the remaining molecules is ∼ 100 ms, which is much longer than
for a pure molecular sample in an optical dipole trap. Similar results
have recently been reported in Ref. [3]. The increased lifetime is an
important step on the route to a BEC of molecules in the vibrational ground state [4].
[1] T. Mukaiyama et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 92, 180402 (2004)
[2] S. Dürr et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 92, 020406 (2004)
[3] G. Thalhammer et al., cond-mat/0510755
[4] D. Jaksch et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 89, 040402 (2002)