In this thesis, I present studies of the creation of ultracold heteronuclear molecules from a dilute gas mixture of 87Rb and 40K. Using a Fano-Feshbach resonance, atom pairs are associated into molecules via time-dependent magnetic fields. Slow magnetic- field sweeps are used to make large samples of highly vibrationally excited KRb molecules, while rapid magnetic-fi eld pulses are used to create quantum superpositions of atom and molecule states. Rabi- and Ramsey-type experiments demonstrate coherent oscillations between atoms and molecules. This new type of quantum superposition involves particles of different statistics (i.e., bosons and fermions) and demonstrates atom-molecule coherence without a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC). These atom-molecule oscillations may provide a unique way to probe the many-body behavior of a strongly interacting Bose-Fermi mixture.
CY - Boulder N2 -In this thesis, I present studies of the creation of ultracold heteronuclear molecules from a dilute gas mixture of 87Rb and 40K. Using a Fano-Feshbach resonance, atom pairs are associated into molecules via time-dependent magnetic fields. Slow magnetic- field sweeps are used to make large samples of highly vibrationally excited KRb molecules, while rapid magnetic-fi eld pulses are used to create quantum superpositions of atom and molecule states. Rabi- and Ramsey-type experiments demonstrate coherent oscillations between atoms and molecules. This new type of quantum superposition involves particles of different statistics (i.e., bosons and fermions) and demonstrates atom-molecule coherence without a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC). These atom-molecule oscillations may provide a unique way to probe the many-body behavior of a strongly interacting Bose-Fermi mixture.
PB - University of Colorado Boulder PP - Boulder PY - 2008 TI - Experiments with Feshbach molecules in a Bose-Fermi mixture ER -