Double-degenerate Fermi mixtures of <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><mml:mrow><mml:mmultiscripts><mml:mi>Li</mml:mi><mml:mprescripts/><mml:none/><mml:mrow><mml:mn>6</mml:mn></mml:mrow></mml:mmultiscripts></mml:mrow></mml:math> and <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><mml:mmultiscripts><mml:mi>Cr</mml:mi><mml:mprescripts/><mml:none/><mml:mn>53</mml:mn></mml:mmultiscripts></mml:math> atoms
A. Ciamei, S. Finelli, A. Cosco, M. Inguscio, A. Trenkwalder, Matteo Zaccanti
Abstract
We report on the realization of a degenerate mixture of ultracold fermionic lithium and chromium atoms. Based on an all-optical approach, with an overall duty cycle of about 13 s, we produce large and degenerate samples of more than $2\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{5}{\phantom{\rule{4pt}{0ex}}}^{6}\mathrm{Li}$ atoms and ${10}^{5}^{53}\mathrm{Cr}$ atoms, with both species exhibiting normalized temperatures of about $T/{T}_{F}=0.25$. Additionally, through the exploitation of a crossed bichromatic optical dipole trap, we can controllably vary the density and degree of degeneracy of the two components almost independently and widely tune the lithium-to-chromium density ratio. Our $^{6}\mathrm{Li}\text{\ensuremath{-}}^{53}\mathrm{Cr}$ Fermi mixture opens the way to the investigation of a variety of exotic few- and many-body regimes of quantum matter and it appears as an optimally suited system to realize ultracold paramagnetic polar molecules, characterized by both electric and magnetic dipole moments. Ultimately, our strategy also provides an efficient pathway to produce dipolar Fermi gases, or spin mixtures, of ultracold $^{53}\mathrm{Cr}$ atoms.