An Ultracold Gas of Bosonic $^{23}\textrm{Na}^{39}\textrm{K}$ Ground-State Molecules

Kai K. Voges, Philipp Gersema, Mara Meyer zum Alten Borgloh, Torben A. Schulze, Torsten Hartmann, Alessandro Zenesini, Silke Ospelkaus

Published 2020-08-12Version 1

We report the creation of ultracold bosonic dipolar $^{23}\textrm{Na}^{39}\textrm{K}$ molecules in their absolute rovibrational ground state. Starting from weakly bound molecules immersed in an ultracold atomic mixture, we coherently transfer the dimers to the rovibrational ground state using an adiabatic Raman passage. We analyze the two-body decay in a pure molecular sample and in molecule-atom mixtures and find an unexpectedly low two-body decay coefficient for collisions between molecules and $^{39}\textrm{K}$ atoms in a selected hyperfine state. The preparation of bosonic $^{23}\textrm{Na}^{39}\textrm{K}$ molecules opens the way for future comparisons between fermionic and bosonic ultracold ground-state molecules of the same chemical species.