Lithium-rubidium gas mixtures and molecules

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In the last two decades, numerous research groups worldwide have produced and studied elemental ultracold atomic gases, i.e. gases at temperatures just a millionth or billionth above absolve zero and composed of atoms from a single element on the periodic table. The applications of these ultracold gas experiments have been mostly scientific, exploring basic phenomena associated with quantum mechanics and the physics of many-body systems, but also increasingly of technological utility, such as efforts to develop sensors that measure acceleration, rotation, forces, and electromagnetic fields with very high precision. This project will expand on this work by studying quantum gases composed of atoms of two different elements. The combination of the two gases in the same experiment allows for studies of a wider range of quantum phenomena. Moreover, the combination enables the creation of ultracold gases of molecules, which are formed by binding together two atoms from the two-element atomic gas. Molecules respond differently than atoms to external fields and to each other. Correspondingly, quantum mechanical systems composed of molecular gases will display different quantum phenomena than atomic gases, and can also serve for different types of sensors than do atoms.More specifically, this project focuses on gases composed of both lithium and rubidium atoms. A two-element ultracold atomic gas will be used to study magnetization order and dynamics in ultracold gases for which the spin degree of freedom is allowed to evolve dynamically. The largely different masses of the two elements will allow for studies of interactions between heavy and light atoms within periodic optical potentials. Finally, the photoassociation of lithium and rubidium into heteronuclear molecules will be investigated. The project aims to achieve single-site resolution and control over photoassociation and photodissociation of atoms trapped within optical lattices.