Bose-Einstein condensation of molecules.
We report on the Bose-Einstein condensation of more than 10(5) Li2 molecules in an optical trap starting from a spin mixture of fermionic lithium atoms. During forced evaporative cooling, the molecules are formed by three-body recombination near a Feshbach resonance and finally condense in a long-lived thermal equilibrium state. We measured the characteristic frequency of a collective excitation mode and demonstrated the magnetic field-dependent mean field by controlled condensate spilling.
Jochim
S
S
Institut für Experimentalphysik, Universität Innsbruck, Technikerstrasse 25, 6020 Innsbruck, Austria.
Bartenstein
M
M
Altmeyer
A
A
Hendl
G
G
Riedl
S
S
Chin
C
C
Hecker Denschlag
J
J
Grimm
R
R