Realization of a Cold Mixture of Fermionic Chromium and Lithium Atoms

We report on the production of a cold mixture of fermionic Cr-53 and Li-6 atoms delivered by two Zeeman-slowed atomic beams and collected within a magneto-optical trap (MOT). For lithium, we obtain clouds of up to 4 x 10(8) atoms at temperatures of about 500 mu K. A gray optical molasses stage allows us to decrease the gas temperature down to 45(5) mu K. For chromium, we obtain MOTs of more than 1.1 x 10(6) atoms. The availability of magnetically trappable metastable D states, from which P-state atoms can radiatively decay onto, enables to accumulate into the MOT quadrupole samples of almost 10(7 53)Cr atoms. After repumping D-state atoms back into the cooling cycle, a final cooling stage decreases the chromium temperature down to 145(5) mu K. While the presence of a lithium MOT decreases the lifetime of magnetically trapped Cr-53 atoms, we obtain, within a 5-s duty cycle, samples of about 4 x 10(6) chromium and 3 x 10(8) lithium atoms. Our work provides a crucial step toward the production of degenerate Cr-Li Fermi mixtures.