Quantum degenerate mixture of ytterbium and lithium atoms

We have produced a quantum degenerate mixture of fermionic alkali-metal Li-6 and bosonic spin-singlet Yb-174 gases. This was achieved using sympathetic cooling of lithium atoms by evaporatively cooled ytterbium atoms in a far-off-resonant optical dipole trap. We observe the coexistence of Bose-condensed (T/T-c similar or equal to 0.8) Yb-174 with 2.3 x 10(4) atoms and Fermi degenerate (T/T-F similar or equal to 0.3) Li-6 with 1.2 x 10(4) atoms. Quasipure Bose-Einstein condensates of up to 3 x 10(4) Yb-174 atoms can be produced in single-species experiments. Our results mark a significant step toward studies of few-and many-body physics with mixtures of alkali-metal and alkaline-earth-metal-like atoms, and for the production of paramagnetic polar molecules in the quantum regime. Our methods also establish a convenient scheme for producing quantum degenerate ytterbium atoms in a 1064 nm optical dipole trap.