Conversion of an atomic Fermi gas to a long-lived molecular Bose gas

We have converted an ultracold Fermi gas of Li-6 atoms into an ultracold gas of Li-6(2) molecules by adiabatic passage through a Feshbach resonance. Approximately 1.5x10(5) molecules in the least-bound, v=38, vibrational level of the X(1)Sigma(g)(+) singlet state are produced with an efficiency of 50%. The molecules remain confined in an optical trap for times of up to 1 s before we dissociate them by a reverse adiabatic sweep.