Feshbach resonances in mixtures of ultracold 6^6Li and 87^{87}Rb gases

We report on the observation of two Feshbach resonances in collisions between ultracold $^6$Li and $^{87}$Rb atoms in their respective hyperfine ground states $|F,m_F>=|1/2,1/2>$ and $|1,1>$. The resonances show up as trap losses for the $^6$Li cloud induced by inelastic Li-Rb-Rb three-body collisions. The magnetic field values where they occur represent important benchmarks for an accurate determination of the interspecies interaction potentials. A broad Feshbach resonance located at 1066.92 G opens interesting prospects for the creation of ultracold heteronuclear molecules. We furthermore observe a strong enhancement of the narrow p-wave Feshbach resonance in collisions of $^6$Li atoms at 158.55 G in the presence of a dense $^{87}$Rb cloud. The effect of the $^{87}$Rb cloud is to introduce Li-Li-Rb three-body collisions occurring at a higher rate than Li-Li-Li collisions.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

Spatially resolved photo ionization of ultracold atoms on an atom chip

We report on photo ionization of ultracold magnetically trapped Rb atoms on an atom chip. The atoms are trapped at 5 $\mu$K in a strongly anisotropic trap. Through a hole in the chip with a diameter of 150 $\mu$m two laser beams are focussed onto a fraction of the atomic cloud. A first laser beam with a wavelength of 778 nm excites the atoms via a two photon transition to the 5D level. With a fiber laser at 1080 nm the excited atoms are photo ionized. Ionization leads to depletion of the atomic density distribution observed by absorption imaging. The resonant ionization spectrum is reported. The setup used in this experiment is not only suitable to investigate BEC ion mixtures but also single atom detection on an atom chip

Radiofrequency spectroscopy of 6^6Li p-wave molecules: towards photoemission spectroscopy of a p-wave superfluid

Understanding superfluidity with higher order partial waves is crucial for the understanding of high-$T_c$ superconductivity. For the realization of a superfluid with anisotropic order parameter, spin-polarized fermionic lithium atoms with strong p-wave interaction are the most promising candidates to date. We apply rf-spectroscopy techniques that do not suffer from severe final-state effects \cite{Perali08} with the goal to perform photoemission spectroscopy on a strongly interacting p-wave Fermi gas similar to that recently applied for s-wave interactions \cite{Stewart08}. Radiofrequency spectra of both quasibound p-wave molecules and free atoms in the vicinity of the p-wave Feshbach resonance located at 159.15\,G \cite{Schunck05} are presented. The observed relative tunings of the molecular and atomic signals in the spectra with magnetic field confirm earlier measurements realized with direct rf-association \cite{Fuchs08}. Furthermore, evidence of bound molecule production using adiabatic ramps is shown. A scheme to observe anisotropic superfluid gaps, the most direct proof of p-wave superfluidity, with 1d-optical lattices is proposed.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure