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Chen XY, Biswas S, Eppelt S, Schindewolf A, Deng F, Shi T, Yi S, Hilker TA, Bloch I, Luo XY. Ultracold field-linked tetratomic molecules. Nature 2024; 626:283-287. [PMID: 38297128 PMCID: PMC10849947 DOI: 10.1038/s41586-023-06986-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/05/2023] [Accepted: 12/15/2023] [Indexed: 02/02/2024]
Abstract
Ultracold polyatomic molecules offer opportunities1 in cold chemistry2,3, precision measurements4 and quantum information processing5,6, because of their rich internal structure. However, their increased complexity compared with diatomic molecules presents a challenge in using conventional cooling techniques. Here we demonstrate an approach to create weakly bound ultracold polyatomic molecules by electroassociation7 (F.D. et al., manuscript in preparation) in a degenerate Fermi gas of microwave-dressed polar molecules through a field-linked resonance8-11. Starting from ground-state NaK molecules, we create around 1.1 × 103 weakly bound tetratomic (NaK)2 molecules, with a phase space density of 0.040(3) at a temperature of 134(3) nK, more than 3,000 times colder than previously realized tetratomic molecules12. We observe a maximum tetramer lifetime of 8(2) ms in free space without a notable change in the presence of an optical dipole trap, indicating that these tetramers are collisionally stable. Moreover, we directly image the dissociated tetramers through microwave-field modulation to probe the anisotropy of their wavefunction in momentum space. Our result demonstrates a universal tool for assembling weakly bound ultracold polyatomic molecules from smaller polar molecules, which is a crucial step towards Bose-Einstein condensation of polyatomic molecules and towards a new crossover from a dipolar Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer superfluid13-15 to a Bose-Einstein condensation of tetramers. Moreover, the long-lived field-linked state provides an ideal starting point for deterministic optical transfer to deeply bound tetramer states16-18.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xing-Yan Chen
- Max-Planck-Institut für Quantenoptik, Garching, Germany
- Munich Center for Quantum Science and Technology, Munich, Germany
| | - Shrestha Biswas
- Max-Planck-Institut für Quantenoptik, Garching, Germany
- Munich Center for Quantum Science and Technology, Munich, Germany
| | - Sebastian Eppelt
- Max-Planck-Institut für Quantenoptik, Garching, Germany
- Munich Center for Quantum Science and Technology, Munich, Germany
| | - Andreas Schindewolf
- Max-Planck-Institut für Quantenoptik, Garching, Germany
- Munich Center for Quantum Science and Technology, Munich, Germany
| | - Fulin Deng
- School of Physics and Technology, Wuhan University, Wuhan, China
- CAS Key Laboratory of Theoretical Physics, Institute of Theoretical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Tao Shi
- CAS Key Laboratory of Theoretical Physics, Institute of Theoretical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
- AS Center for Excellence in Topological Quantum Computation & School of Physical Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
| | - Su Yi
- CAS Key Laboratory of Theoretical Physics, Institute of Theoretical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
- AS Center for Excellence in Topological Quantum Computation & School of Physical Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
- Peng Huanwu Collaborative Center for Research and Education, Beihang University, Beijing, China
| | - Timon A Hilker
- Max-Planck-Institut für Quantenoptik, Garching, Germany
- Munich Center for Quantum Science and Technology, Munich, Germany
| | - Immanuel Bloch
- Max-Planck-Institut für Quantenoptik, Garching, Germany
- Munich Center for Quantum Science and Technology, Munich, Germany
- Fakultät für Physik, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Munich, Germany
| | - Xin-Yu Luo
- Max-Planck-Institut für Quantenoptik, Garching, Germany.
- Munich Center for Quantum Science and Technology, Munich, Germany.
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