Heteronuclear molecules

For many years physicists try to produce large samples of ultracold heteronuclear molecules because of their large ground state electric dipole moment. Both the realization of quantum gases dominated by anisotropic long range interactions and new precision measurements with higher accuracy are possible with such molecules. Only since very recently such ground state molecules were produced in a laboratory and many until now only theoretically predicted properties of polar quantum gases are within arms reach for experimentalists.

Both fermionic and bosonic polar molecules can be produced from our two isotopic combinations, making these systems, particularly because of their predicted large molecular ground state dipole moments, extremely interesting candidates for such studies.

The goals of this project are

- direct radiofrequency-association of heteronuclear molecules,

- study of bosonic (⁷Li⁸⁷Rb) and fermionic (⁶Li⁸⁷Rb) molecules with extreme mass ratios,

- deexcitation of vibrational energy via Raman-photoassociation,

- further cooling of ground state molecules to reach quantum degeneracy.