Stable 2 W continuous-wave 261.5 nm laser for cooling and trapping aluminum monochloride

Shaw, Jamie; Hannig, Stephan; McCarron, Daniel

doi:10.1364/oe.441741

Cited by 17 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 39 publications

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“…Very recently, the magneto-optical trapping of a triatomic molecule CaOH has been demonstrated [44]—see below. Other molecules under consideration, in some cases with in-principle demonstrations, for laser cooling (or Zeeman Sisyphus cooling—see below) include BaH [75], MgF [76], BaF [77], AlF [78], YbF [79], CH [80], SrOH [81], YbOH [82], CaOCH 3 [83] and SrCl [84].…”

Section: The Development Of Experimental Techniques For Studying Cold...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Cold and ultracold molecules in the twenties

Softley

2023

Proc. R. Soc. A.

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A diversity of experimental techniques has been developed over the last 25 years to create samples of molecular gases at temperatures close to the Absolute Zero—here we consider samples in the range from 10s of Kelvin (cold) down to 10s of nanoKelvin (ultracold). In these exotic physical environments, a range of novel experiments can be conducted which bring high levels of control over the properties of these ‘almost stationary’ molecules, in some cases with control over single trapped molecules achievable. In this article, recent advances in this field since 2020, both in terms of the ability to produce and manipulate the molecules and understand their properties, and also in the development of new applications of these technologies, are highlighted. Applications include observing explicit ‘quantum effects’ in chemical reactivity, developing an understanding of chemistry in cold astrophysical media, the creation of exotic phases of matter, the use of trapped molecules in quantum computation and simulations systems, and the use of very high-precision spectroscopic measurements to answer fundamental physics questions beyond the standard model of particle physics.

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Section: The Development Of Experimental Techniques For Studying Cold...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Cold and ultracold molecules in the twenties

Softley

2023

Proc. R. Soc. A.

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“…Although UV lasers are constantly improving, the regime below approximately 240 nm remains highly challenging. For example, recent advances using CLBO crystals to generate 2 W of stable power at 261 nm [35] cannot be directly applied due to the phasematching properties of CLBO, which has a Type-I SHG cutoff wavelength at ∼237 nm [36]. Instead beta-barium borate (BBO) crystals have to be used, which exhibit greater DUVinduced damage [37], and achieving such powers stably over significant timescales (> hours) has not currently been demonstrated.…”

Section: Atommentioning

confidence: 99%

Design and simulation of a source of cold cadmium for atom interferometry

Bandarupally,

Tinsley,

Chiarotti

et al. 2023

J. Phys. B: At. Mol. Opt. Phys.

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We present a novel optimised design for a source of cold atomic cadmium, compatible withcontinuous operation and potentially quantum degenerate gas production. The design is based onspatially segmenting the first and second-stages of cooling with the the strong dipole-allowed 1S0-1P1transition at 229 nm and the 326 nm 1S0-3P1 intercombination transition, respectively. Cooling at229 nm operates on an effusive atomic beam and takes the form of a compact Zeeman slower (∼5 cm)and two-dimensional magneto-optical trap (MOT), both based on permanent magnets. This designallows for reduced interaction time with the photoionising 229 nm photons and produces a slowbeam of atoms that can be directly loaded into a three-dimensional MOT using the intercombinationtransition. The efficiency of the above process is estimated across a broad range of experimentallyfeasible parameters via use of a Monte Carlo simulation, with loading rates up to 108 atoms/s intothe 326 nm MOT possible with the oven at only 100 ◦C. The prospects for further cooling in a faroff-resonance optical-dipole trap and atomic launching in a moving optical lattice are also analysed,especially with reference to the deployment in a proposed dual-species cadmium-strontium atominterferometer.

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“…In this paper, we focus on molecules with a X 2 Σ ground state comprised of an alkaline-earth metal with a ligand (here, either F or OH); to date, molecules with this ground state are the only ones that have been slowed and loaded into MOTs, although there are several groups working toward cooling and trapping for systems with a X 1 Σ ground state [27][28][29][30]. These molecules have nearly diagonal matrices of Franck-Condon factors for electronic excitations to the A 2 Π 1/2 and/or B 2 Σ electronic excited states; this Franck-Condon structure is necessary to limit the number of vibrational repump lasers required for laser-cooling [31].…”

Section: Overview: Laser Slowing Cooling and Trapping Of 2 σ Moleculesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Toward improved loading, cooling, and trapping of molecules in magneto-optical traps

Langin

DeMille

2023

New J. Phys.

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Recent experiments have demonstrated direct cooling and trapping of diatomic and triatomic molecules in magneto-optical traps (MOTs). However, even the best molecular MOTs to date still have density 10-5 times smaller than in typical atomic MOTs. The main limiting factors are: (i) inefficiencies in slowing molecules to velocities low enough to be captured by the MOT, (ii) low MOT capture velocities, and (iii) limits on density within the MOT resulting from sub-Doppler heating [J. A. Devlin and M. R. Tarbutt, Phys. Rev. A 90, 063415 (2018)]. All of these are consequences of the need to drive `Type-II' optical cycling transitions, where dark states appear in Zeeman sublevels, in order to avoid rotational branching. We present simulations demonstrating ways to mitigate each of these limitations. This should pave the way towards loading molecules into conservative traps with sufficiently high density and number to evaporatively cool them to quantum degeneracy.

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Stable 2 W continuous-wave 261.5 nm laser for cooling and trapping aluminum monochloride

Cited by 17 publications

References 39 publications

Cold and ultracold molecules in the twenties

Cold and ultracold molecules in the twenties

Design and simulation of a source of cold cadmium for atom interferometry

Toward improved loading, cooling, and trapping of molecules in magneto-optical traps

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