Quantum degenerate two-species Fermi-Fermi mixture coexisting with a Bose-Einstein condensate

Understand

We report on the generation of a quantum degenerate Fermi-Fermi mixture of two different atomic species.

• The quantum degenerate mixture is realized employing sympathetic cooling of fermionic Li-6 and K-40 gases by an evaporatively cooled bosonic Rb-87 gas.
• We describe the combination of trapping and cooling methods that proved crucial to successfully cool the mixture.
• In particular, we study the last part of the cooling process and show that the efficiency of sympathetic cooling of the Li-6 gas by Rb-87 is increased by the presence of K-40 through catalytic cooling.