Laser cooled molecules

Fitch, N. J.; Tarbutt, M. R.

doi:10.48550/arxiv.2103.00968

Cited by 11 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 231 publications

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“…Collisional losses in a magnetic trap are much slower, provided that the molecules are in the rotational ground state [20]. Laser cooling is now being applied to many molecular species (see [39] for a recent review) and the methods developed here could be used to produce a wide range of atom-molecule mixtures and to study how they interact at low temperatures. In (a) the probe beam is switched on 1 ms after turning off the MOT coils and kept on for a variable time t p before an absorption image is acquired.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Collisions in a dual-species magneto-optical trap of molecules and atoms

Jurgilas,

Chakraborty,

Rich

et al. 2021

Preprint

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We study inelastic collisions between CaF molecules and 87 Rb atoms in a dual-species magneto-optical trap. The presence of atoms increases the loss rate of molecules from the trap. By measuring the loss rates and density distributions, we determine a collisional loss rate coefficient k 2 = (1.43 ± 0.29) × 10 −10 cm 3 /s at a temperature of 2.4 mK. We show that this is not substantially changed by lightinduced collisions or by varying the populations of excited-state atoms and molecules. The observed loss rate is close to the universal rate expected in the presence of fast loss at short range, and can be explained by rotation-changing collisions in the ground electronic state.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Collisions in a dual-species magneto-optical trap of molecules and atoms

Jurgilas,

Chakraborty,

Rich

et al. 2021

Preprint

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“…it precesses between a dark and a bright state. We determine the dark state composition by using equation 23 in [37] and find that ¶ Dark states are not always detrimental. Robust, velocity selective dark states can be very useful to cool molecules to very low temperatures below the recoil limit [36].…”

Section: Hyperfine Levelsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Optical cycling of AlF molecules

Hofsäss,

Doppelbauer,

Wright

et al. 2021

Preprint

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Aluminium monofluoride (AlF) is a promising candidate for laser cooling and trapping at high densities. We show efficient production of AlF in a bright, pulsed cryogenic buffer gas beam, and demonstrate rapid optical cycling on the Q rotational lines of the A 1 Π ↔ X 1 Σ + transition. We measure the brightness of the molecular beam to be > 10 12 molecules per steradian per pulse in a single rotational state and present a new method to determine its velocity distribution in a single shot. The photon scattering rate of the optical cycling scheme is measured using three different methods, and is compared to theoretical predictions of the optical Bloch equations and a simplified rate equation model. Despite the large number of Zeeman sublevels (up to 216 for the Q(4) transition) involved, a high scattering rate of at least 17(2) × 10 6 s −1 can be sustained using a single, fixed-frequency laser without the need to modulate the polarisation. The acceleration due to the radiation pressure force is measured by deflecting the molecular beam to 8.7(1.5) × 10 5 m/s 2 . We demonstrate that losses from the optical cycle due to vibrational branching to X 1 Σ + , v = 1 can be addressed efficiently with a single repump laser. Further, we investigate two other loss channels, parity mixing by stray electric fields and photo-ionisation. The upper bounds for these effects are sufficiently low to allow loading into a magneto optical trap.

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“…The calculation of the transition matrix elements is based off of Appendix A in [26]. For a great complementary discussion of the various parts of the Hamiltonian, see [28] The Molecular Hamiltonian for a particular electronic state can be divided up into different parts:…”

Section: Appendix a Calculating The Eigenenergies And Transition Rate...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Characterizing the Zeeman slowing force for $^{40}$Ca$^{19}$F molecules

Kaebert,

Stepanova,

Poll

et al. 2021

Preprint

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In this paper we investigate the feasibility of Zeeman slowing calcium monofluoride (CaF) molecules originating from a cryogenic buffer gas cell. We measure the) hyperfine spectrum of CaF in the Paschen-Back regime and find excellent agreement with theory. We then investigate the scattering rate of the molecules in a molecular Zeeman slower by illuminating them with light from a 10 mW broad repumper and a 10 mW multi-frequency slowing laser. By comparing our results to theory we can calculate the photon scattering rate at higher powers, leading to a force profile for Zeeman slowing. We show results from a simple 1D simulation demonstrating that this force is both strong and narrow enough to lead to significant compression, and slowing of the molecules to trappable velocities.

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Laser cooled molecules

Cited by 11 publications

References 231 publications

Collisions in a dual-species magneto-optical trap of molecules and atoms

Collisions in a dual-species magneto-optical trap of molecules and atoms

Optical cycling of AlF molecules

Characterizing the Zeeman slowing force for $^{40}$Ca$^{19}$F molecules

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