Long-Lived Ultracold Molecules with Electric and Magnetic Dipole Moments

Abstract

We create fermionic dipolar ²³Na⁶Li molecules in their triplet ground state from an ultracold mixture of ²³Na and ⁶Li. Using magnetoassociation across a narrow Feshbach resonance followed by a two-photon stimulated Raman adiabatic passage to the triplet ground state, we produce 3×10⁴ ground state molecules in a spin-polarized state. We observe a lifetime of 4.6 s in an isolated molecular sample, approaching the p-wave universal rate limit. Electron spin resonance spectroscopy of the triplet state was used to determine the hyperfine structure of this previously unobserved molecular state.