Role of interactions in 87Rb-40K Bose-Fermi mixtures in a 3D optical lattice

Phys Rev Lett. 2009 Jan 23;102(3):030408. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.102.030408. Epub 2009 Jan 23.

Abstract

We investigate the effect of interspecies interaction on a degenerate mixture of bosonic 87Rb and fermionic 40K atoms in a three-dimensional optical lattice potential. Using a Feshbach resonance, the 87Rb-40K interaction is tuned over a wide range. Through an analysis of the 87Rb momentum distribution, we find a pronounced asymmetry between strong repulsion and strong attraction. In the latter case, we observe a marked shift in the superfluid to Mott insulator transition, which we attribute to a renormalization of the Bose-Hubbard parameters due to self-trapping.