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Observation of Bose-Einstein Condensation of Molecules

M. W. Zwierlein·C. A. Stan·C. H. Schunck·S. M. F. Raupach·S. Gupta·Z. Hadzibabic·W. Ketterle
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Abstract

We have observed Bose-Einstein condensation of molecules. When a spin mixture of fermionic Li-6 atoms was evaporatively cooled in an optical dipole trap near a Feshbach resonance, the atomic gas was converted into Li_2 molecules. Below 600 nK, a Bose-Einstein condensate of up to 900,000 molecules was identified by the sudden onset of a bimodal density distribution. This condensate realizes the limit of tightly bound fermion pairs in the crossover between BCS superfluidity and Bose-Einstein condensation.

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M. W. Zwierlein, C. A. Stan, C. H. Schunck, S. M. F. Raupach, S. Gupta, Z. Hadzibabic, W. Ketterle. 2003-12-15. Observation of Bose-Einstein Condensation of Molecules. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.91.250401

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