Molecular Bose-Einstein Condensate at Swinburne

April 2007

The Molecular BEC team in the ARC Centre of Excellence for Quantum-Atom Optics (ACQAO) at Swinburne University have realised a molecular Bose-Einstein condensate (MBEC) of bosonic ⁶Li₂ molecules formed from fermionic ⁶Li atoms, as well as a degenerate Fermi gas of ⁶Li atoms. The molecular BEC was achieved in an crossed optical dipole trap on the low magnetic field side (770 G) of a magnetically tunable Feshbach resonance (centred at 834 G), where the atoms form molecules, and the degenerate Fermi gas of ⁶Li atoms was achieved on the high magnetic field side (1150 G) of the Feshbach resonance.

The figure shows a sequence of absorption images as more atoms/molecules are evaporated from the optical trap. The dramatic appearance of a central non-Gaussian density peak is the signature of bosonic ⁶Li₂ molecules undergoing the transition to a Bose-Einstein condensate.

Molecular BEC formation