Diatomic molecules in ultracold Fermi gases—novel composite bosons

We give a brief overview of recent studies of weakly bound homonuclear molecules in ultracold two-component Fermi gases. It is emphasized that they represent novel composite bosons, which exhibit features of Fermi statistics at short intermolecular distances. In particular, the Pauli exclusion principle for identical fermionic atoms provides a strong suppression of collisional relaxation of such molecules into deep bound states. We then analyse heteronuclear molecules which are expected to be formed in mixtures of different fermionic atoms. We show how an increase in the mass ratio for the constituent atoms changes the physics of collisional stability of such molecules compared to homonuclear ones. We discuss Bose–Einstein condensation of these composite bosons and consider prospects for future studies.