Pairing effects in ultra-cold fermionic lithium

Experiments on ultra-cold fermionic ⁶Li confined in a crossed dipole trap. ⁶Li possesses Feshbach resonances both in the s-wave and p-wave channels. This features enables the exploration of both s-wave and p-wave pairing mechanisms. We first discuss our observation of Bose-Einstein condensation of ⁶Li₂ molecules in the low-magnetic field wing the s-wave Feshbach located at ∼ 834 G. The molecular BEC offers a good starting point for the exploration of the BEC-BCS (Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer) crossover. We have also located p-wave Feshbach resonances in the two lowest hyperfine states of ⁶Li. The experimental positions of these resonances are in good agreement with those predicted by coupled channel calculations. We have studied the atom losses close to these resonances and have developed a semi-analytical model capturing our experimental findings.