Condensation of Pairs of Fermionic Atoms near a Feshbach Resonance

We have observed Bose-Einstein condensation of pairs of fermionic atoms in an ultracold ⁶Li gas at magnetic fields above a Feshbach resonance, where no stable ⁶Li₂ molecules would exist in vacuum. We accurately determined the position of the resonance to be 822±3  G. Molecular Bose-Einstein condensates were detected after a fast magnetic field ramp, which transferred pairs of atoms at close distances into bound molecules. Condensate fractions as high as 80% were obtained. The large condensate fractions are interpreted in terms of preexisting molecules which are quasistable even above the two-body Feshbach resonance due to the presence of the degenerate Fermi gas.