Ultracold Mixtures of Lithium and Ytterbium

Quantum degenerate mixtures of alkali and alkaline-earth-like atoms introduce a wide range of studies of few- and many-body physics, and provide a path toward paramagnetic, polar molecules. We here report on our production and studies of a novel ultracold-atom system comprised of a mixture of ground-state $^{6}$Li, and $^{174}$Yb in the metastable $^{3}P_{2}$-state. This mixture has the advantage over ground-state Li+Yb of potentially exhibiting wide magnetically tunable interactions, and is predicted to possess a far greater dipole moment. We also discuss recent studies of chemical dynamics near the broad $^{6}$Li Feshbach resonance, as modified by a third, non-resonant species, including measurements of reaction rate coefficients and their comparison with theoretical scattering length-dependent scaling laws.