Abstract
The production of ultracold molecules is one of the major quests in modem physics. The current efforts concentrate on two main routes, one cooling initially thermal molecules, the other starting with ultracold atoms and turning them into molecules by means of photoassociation or Feshbach resonances. This controlled (and reversible) conversion between atoms and molecules had a huge impact on the field of quantum gases and evolved significantly during recent years. Most experiments so far concentrate on single species diatomic molecules, which already gave rise to many fascinating experiments, e.g. connecting BCS and BEC superfluidity. The very recent achievement at Hamburg and JILA of ultracold heteronuclear molecules made from different atomic species now opens up intriguing perspectives in view of both their internal properties and their interactions. In particular the electric dipole moment of heteronuclear molecules in low vibrational states adds important new physics. Their large anisotropic interactions are predicted to give rise to a variety of quantum phases such as novel types of quantum magnetism and superfluid pairing or even supersolid phases in addition to promising quantum computation schemes. Further examples include fundamental tests such as searches for the existence of pennanent electric dipole moments of the electron, parity violation or drifts of fundamental constants.
© 2007 IEEE
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