Condensation of Pairs of Fermionic Atoms near a Feshbach Resonance

✍ Scribed by Zwierlein, M. W.; Stan, C. A.; Schunck, C. H.; Raupach, S. M. F.; Kerman, A. J.; Ketterle, W.

• Book ID: 120061063
• Publisher: The American Physical Society
• Year: 2004
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 483 KB
• Volume: 92
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0031-9007
• DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.92.120403

✦ Synopsis

We have observed Bose-Einstein condensation of pairs of fermionic atoms in an ultracold 6 Li gas at magnetic fields above a Feshbach resonance, where no stable 6 Li 2 molecules would exist in vacuum. We accurately determined the position of the resonance to be 822 3 G. Molecular Bose-Einstein condensates were detected after a fast magnetic field ramp, which transferred pairs of atoms at close distances into bound molecules. Condensate fractions as high as 80% were obtained. The large condensate fractions are interpreted in terms of preexisting molecules which are quasistable even above the two-body Feshbach resonance due to the presence of the degenerate Fermi gas.