Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Letter
  • Published:

Creation of ultracold molecules from a Fermi gas of atoms

Nature volume 424, pages 47–50 (2003)Cite this article

Abstract

Following the realization of Bose–Einstein condensates in atomic gases, an experimental challenge is the production of molecular gases in the quantum regime. A promising approach is to create the molecular gas directly from an ultracold atomic gas; for example, bosonic atoms in a Bose-Einstein condensate have been coupled to electronic ground-state molecules through photoassociation1 or a magnetic field Feshbach resonance2. The availability of atomic Fermi gases offers the prospect of coupling fermionic atoms to bosonic molecules, thus altering the quantum statistics of the system. Such a coupling would be closely related to the pairing mechanism in a fermionic superfluid, predicted to occur near a Feshbach resonance3,4. Here we report the creation and quantitative characterization of ultracold 40K2 molecules. Starting with a quantum degenerate Fermi gas of atoms at a temperature of less than 150 nK, we scan the system over a Feshbach resonance to create adiabatically more than 250,000 trapped molecules; these can be converted back to atoms by reversing the scan. The small binding energy of the molecules is controlled by detuning the magnetic field away from the Feshbach resonance, and can be varied over a wide range. We directly detect these weakly bound molecules through their radio-frequency photodissociation spectra; these probe the molecular wavefunction, and yield binding energies that are consistent with theory.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Atom loss following magnetic field ramps across a Feshbach resonance in 40K.
Figure 2: Dependence of atom loss on the magnetic field ramp rate through the Feshbach resonance.
Figure 3: Photodissociation spectrum of ultracold molecules, and resulting energy per atom.
Figure 4: Absorption images of the quantum gas using a Stern–Gerlach technique.
Figure 5: Binding energy of the molecules.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Wynar, R., Freeland, R. S., Han, D. J., Ryu, C. & Heinzen, D. J. Molecules in a Bose-Einstein condensate. Science 287, 1016–1019 (2002)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  2. Donley, E. A., Claussen, N. R., Thompson, S. T. & Wieman, C. E. Atom–molecule coherence in a Bose–Einstein condensate. Nature 417, 529–533 (2002)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Holland, M., Kokkelmans, S. J. J. M. F., Chiofalo, M. L. & Walser, R. Resonance superfluidity in a quantum degenerate Fermi gas. Phys Rev. Lett. 87, 120406 (2001)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Timmermans, E., Furuya, K., Milloni, P. W. & Kerman, A. K. Prospect of creating a composite Fermi-Bose superfluid. Phys. Lett. A 285, 228–233 (2001)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Feshbach, H. A unified theory of nuclear reactions. II. Ann. Phys. (NY) 19, 287–313 (1962)

    Article  ADS  MathSciNet  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Stwalley, W. C. Stability of spin-aligned hydrogen at low temperatures and high magnetic fields: New field-dependent scattering resonances and predissociations. Phys. Rev. Lett. 37, 1628–1631 (1976)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Tiesinga, E., Verhaar, B. J. & Stoof, H. T. C. Threshold and resonance phenomena in ultracold ground-state collisions. Phys. Rev. A 47, 4114–4122 (1993)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Inouye, S. et al. Observation of Feshbach resonances in a Bose–Einstein condensate. Nature 392, 151–154 (1998)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Cornish, S. L., Claussen, N. R., Roberts, J. L., Cornell, E. A. & Wieman, C. E. Stable 85Rb Bose-Einstein condensates with widely tunable interactions. Phys. Rev. Lett. 85, 1795–1798 (2000)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Loftus, T., Regal, C. A., Ticknor, C., Bohn, J. L. & Jin, D. S. Resonance control of elastic collisions in an optically trapped Fermi gas of atoms. Phys. Rev. Lett. 88, 173201 (2002)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. Dieckmann, K. et al. Decay of an ultracold fermionic lithium gas near a Feshbach resonance. Phys. Rev. Lett. 89, 203201 (2002)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  12. O'Hara, K. M. et al. Measurement of the zero crossing in a Feshbach resonance of fermionic 6Li. Phys. Rev. A 66, 041401 (2002)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  13. Regal, C. A., Ticknor, C., Bohn, J. L. & Jin, D. S. Tuning p-wave interactions in an ultracold Fermi gas of atoms. Phys. Rev. Lett. 90, 053201 (2003)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  14. O'Hara, K. M., Hemmer, S. L., Gehm, M. E., Granade, S. R. & Thomas, J. E. Observation of a strongly interacting degenerate Fermi gas of atoms. Science 298, 2179–2182 (2002)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  15. Regal, C. A. & Jin, D. S. Measurement of positive and negative scattering lengths in a Fermi gas of atoms. Phys. Rev. Lett. (in the press)

  16. Bourdel, T. et al. Measurement of interactions energy near a Feshbach resonance in a 6Li Fermi gas. Preprint at 〈http://arXiv.org/cond-mat/0303079〉 (2003).

  17. Timmermans, E., Tommasini, P., Hussein, M. & Kerman, A. Feshbach resonances in atomic Bose-Einstein condensates. Phys. Rep. 315, 199–230 (1999)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  18. Abeelen, F. A. & Verhaar, B. J. Time-dependent Feshbach resonance scattering and anomalous decay of a Na Bose-Einstein condensate. Phys. Rev. Lett. 83, 1550–1553 (1999)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  19. Mies, F. H., Tiesinga, E. & Julienne, P. S. Manipulation of Feshbach resonance in ultracold atomic collisions using time-dependent magnetic fields. Phys. Rev. A 61, 022721 (2000)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  20. Stenger, J. et al. Strongly enhanced inelastic collisions in a Bose-Einstein condensate near Feshbach resonances. Phys. Rev. Lett. 82, 2422–2425 (1999)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  21. DeMarco, B. & Jin, D. S. Onset of Fermi degeneracy in a trapped atomic gas. Science 285, 1703–1706 (1999)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  22. Soldán, P., Cvitas, M. T., Hutson, J. M., Honvault, P. & Launay, J.-M. Quantum dynamics of ultracold Na + Na2 collisions. Phys. Rev. Lett. 89, 153201 (2002)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  23. Ratcliff, L. B., Fish, J. L. & Konowalow, D. D. Electronic transition dipole moment functions for transitions among the twenty-six lowest-lying states of Li2 . J. Mol. Spectrosc. 122, 293–312 (1987)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  24. Balakrishnan, N., Forrey, R. C. & Dalgarno, A. Quenching of H2 vibrations in ultracold 3He and 4He collisions. Phys. Rev. Lett. 80, 3224–3227 (1998)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  25. Forrey, R. C., Balakrisnan, N., Dalgarno, A., Haggerty, M. R. & Heller, E. J. Quasiresonant energy transfer in ultracold atom-diatom collisions. Phys. Rev. Lett. 82, 2657–2660 (1999)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  26. Petrosyan, K. G. Fermionic atom laser. JETP Lett. 70, 11–16 (1999)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  27. Torma, P. & Zoller, P. Laser probing of atomic Cooper pairs. Phys. Rev. Lett. 85, 487–490 (2000)

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

We thank E. A. Cornell, C. E. Wieman, C. H. Greene and S. Inouye for discussions. This work was supported by the NSF and NIST; C.A.R. acknowledges support from the Hertz Foundation.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. JILA, National Institute of Standards and Technology and Department of Physics, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado, 80309-0440, USA

    Cindy A. Regal, Christopher Ticknor & John L. Bohn

  2. Quantum Physics Division, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Boulder, Colorado, 80309-0440, USA

    Deborah S. Jin

Authors
  1. Cindy A. Regal
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Christopher Ticknor
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. John L. Bohn
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Deborah S. Jin
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Cindy A. Regal.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing financial interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Regal, C., Ticknor, C., Bohn, J. et al. Creation of ultracold molecules from a Fermi gas of atoms. Nature 424, 47–50 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature01738

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nature01738

This article is cited by

Comments

By submitting a comment you agree to abide by our Terms and Community Guidelines. If you find something abusive or that does not comply with our terms or guidelines please flag it as inappropriate.

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing