Ultracold Dipolar Gas of Fermionic $^{23}$Na$^{40}$K Molecules in their Absolute Ground State (1505.00473v1)

Abstract: We report on the creation of an ultracold dipolar gas of fermionic $^{23}$Na$^{40}$K molecules in their absolute rovibrational and hyperfine ground state. Starting from weakly bound Feshbach molecules, we demonstrate hyperfine resolved two-photon transfer into the singlet ${\rm X}^1\Sigma^+ |v{=}0,J{=}0\rangle$ ground state, coherently bridging a binding energy difference of 0.65 eV via stimulated rapid adiabatic passage. The spin-polarized, nearly quantum degenerate molecular gas displays a lifetime longer than 2.5 s, highlighting NaK's stability against two-body chemical reactions. A homogeneous electric field is applied to induce a dipole moment of up to 0.8 Debye. With these advances, the exploration of many-body physics with strongly dipolar Fermi gases of $^{23}$Na$^{40}$K molecules is in experimental reach.