Dual-species Bose-Einstein condensates of 23Na and 41K with tunable interactions

Abstract

We report the creation of dual-species Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs) of Na23 and K41. Favorable background scattering lengths enable efficient sympathetic cooling of K41 via forced evaporative cooling of Na23 in a plugged magnetic trap and an optical dipole trap. The 1/e lifetime of the thermal mixture in the stretched hyperfine state exceeds 5 s in the presence of background scattering. At the end of evaporation, we create dual BECs in the immiscible phase, with about 3×105 Na23 atoms surrounding 5×104 K41 atoms. To further enable the tuning of the interspecies interaction strength, we locate multiple Feshbach resonances at magnetic fields up to 100 G. The broadest s-wave resonance located at 73.4(3) G features a favorable width of 1.8(2) G. This work sets the stage for the creation of ultracold gases of strongly dipolar bosonic Na23K41 molecules as well as the exploration of many-body physics in bosonic Na23-K41 mixtures.