Ultracold Fermionic Feshbach Molecules of [superscript 23]Na[superscript 40]K

Abstract

We report on the formation of ultracold weakly bound Feshbach molecules of [superscript 23]Na[superscript 40]K, the first fermionic molecule that is chemically stable in its absolute ground state. The lifetime of the nearly degenerate molecular gas exceeds 100 ms in the vicinity of the Feshbach resonance. The measured dependence of the molecular binding energy on the magnetic field demonstrates the open-channel character of the molecules over a wide field range and implies significant singlet admixture. This will enable efficient transfer into the singlet vibrational ground state, resulting in a stable molecular Fermi gas with strong dipolar interactions.