Towards rovibrational-ground-state ultracold ⁶Li⁸⁷Rb polar molecules

Ultracold polar molecules combine strong electric dipole moments with rich internal structure, offering a powerful platform for quantum information and metrology, and for exploring exotic many-body phases such as dipolar BEC-BCS crossover in molecular Fermi gases. Achieving these goals requires precise control of multiple atomic species and their interactions, which typically increases experimental complexity and build time. Here we present our progress on a new dual-species quantum-gas apparatus designed to produce ultracold fermionic ⁶Li⁸⁷Rb polar molecules. Our experimental setup features a compact vacuum system and high fluxes of Li and Rb atoms from two in-series 2D MOT sources, enhanced by a short-range Zeeman slower for lithium. We transfer both species into a crossed optical dipole trap and perform simultaneous evaporative cooling to reach a quasi-degenerate Li-Rb mixture. We then form ⁶Li⁸⁷Rb Feshbach molecules by ramping the magnetic field across the interspecies resonance near 1067 Gauss, observing the association-dissociation process of molecules, and detecting more than 2×10³ molecules in the trap. With the Feshbach molecules prepared, we have carried out initial spectroscopy and observed preliminary transition signals to vibrational levels of excited molecular states. These results provide a foundation for systematic molecular spectroscopy and stimulated Raman adiabatic passage to rovibrational-ground-state molecules, enabling future studies of the dipolar BEC-BCS crossover and 2D p-wave superfluidity.