title: Crossover from a molecular Bose-Einstein condensate to a degenerate Fermi gas.
abstract: We demonstrate a reversible conversion of a 6Li2 molecular Bose-Einstein condensate to a degenerate Fermi gas of atoms by adiabatically crossing a Feshbach resonance. By optical in situ imaging, we observe a smooth change of the cloud size in the crossover regime. On the Feshbach resonance, the ensemble is strongly interacting and the measured cloud size is 75(7)% of the one of a noninteracting zero-temperature Fermi gas. The high condensate fraction of more than 90% and the adiabatic crossover suggest our Fermi gas to be cold enough to form a superfluid.
authors.affiliation: Institut für Experimentalphysik, Universität Innsbruck, Technikerstrasse 25, 6020 Innsbruck, Austria.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bartenstein
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Altmeyer
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Riedl
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Jochim
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Chin
authors.forename: J Hecker
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Denschlag
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Grimm