Collisional stability of fermionic Feshbach molecules.

Area of Science:

• Ultracold atomic and molecular physics
• Quantum statistics in many-body systems
• Few-body collision dynamics

Background:

• Bose-Fermi mixtures are crucial for studying quantum phenomena.
• Feshbach resonances enable precise control over atomic interactions.
• Understanding molecule-atom collisions is key to quantum simulation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To create ultracold fermionic molecules from a Bose-Fermi mixture.
• To investigate the role of quantum statistics and scattering length on molecular collisions.
• To explore few-body collision dynamics in a mixed-atom-molecule gas.

Main Methods:

• Utilized Feshbach resonance to associate atoms into weakly bound molecules.
• Prepared a Bose-Fermi atom gas mixture.
• Studied inelastic loss rates of molecules in collisions with atoms.

Main Results:

• Successfully created ultracold fermionic molecules.
• Observed significant influence of quantum statistics and scattering length on inelastic molecular loss.
• Achieved molecule lifetimes up to 100 ms near the Feshbach resonance.

Conclusions:

• Ultracold fermionic molecules can be efficiently created from Bose-Fermi mixtures.
• Quantum statistics profoundly impact molecule-atom collision dynamics.
• The observed long molecule lifetimes open avenues for quantum simulation and control.