Related papers: Electrostatic extraction of cold molecules from a …
Ultracold atom-based electron sources have recently been proposed as an alternative to the conventional photo-injectors or thermionic electron guns widely used in modern particle accelerators. The advantages of ultracold atom-based electron…
A method of slowing, accelerating, cooling, and bunching molecules and neutral atoms using time-varying electric field gradients is demonstrated with cesium atoms in a fountain. The effects are measured and found to be in agreement with…
High fluxes of cold polar molecules are efficiently produced by electric guiding and velocity filtering. Here, we investigate different aspects of the beam formation. Variations of the source parameters such as density and temperature…
We produce YbF molecules with a density of 10^18 m^-3 using laser ablation inside a cryogenically-cooled cell filled with a helium buffer gas. Using absorption imaging and absorption spectroscopy we study the formation, diffusion,…
At the high densities and low temperatures found in star forming regions, all molecules other than H2 should stick on dust grains on timescales shorter than the cloud lifetimes. Yet these clouds are detected in the millimeter lines of…
We have demonstrated a new, accessible and economical technique, dubbed photostop, for producing high densities of trappable molecules. Direct measurements are presented of NO molecules produced with a narrow velocity distribution centered…
We propose to sympathetically slow and cool polar molecules in a cold, low-density beam using laser-cooled Rydberg atoms. The elastic collision cross sections between molecules and Rydberg atoms are large enough to efficiently thermalize…
We report on our recent progress in the manipulation and cooling of a magnetically guided, high flux beam of $^{87}{\rm Rb}$ atoms. Typically $7\times 10^9$ atoms per second propagate in a magnetic guide providing a transverse gradient of…
Ultracold neutral plasmas are formed by photoionizing laser-cooled atoms near the ionization threshold. Through the application of atomic physics techniques and diagnostics, these experiments stretch the boundaries of traditional neutral…
We demonstrate the deceleration of heavy polar molecules in low-field seeking states by combining a cryogenic source and a travelling-wave Stark decelerator. The cryogenic source provides a high intensity beam with low speed and…
We describe the generation and properties of a cryogenic beam of $^7$Li$_2$ dimers from sublimation of a neon matrix where lithium atoms have been implanted via laser ablation of solid precursors of metallic lithium or lithium hydride…
We demonstrate direct cooling of gaseous formaldehyde (H2CO) to the microkelvin regime. Our approach, optoelectrical Sisyphus cooling, provides a simple dissipative cooling method applicable to electrically trapped dipolar molecules. By…
Reaching high densities is a key step towards cold-collision experiments with polyatomic molecules. We use a cryofuge to load up to 2$\times10^7$ CH$_3$F molecules into a box-like electric trap, achieving densities up to 10$^7$/cm$^3$ at…
We demonstrate production of cold atomic strontium (Sr) and strontium-containing molecules (SrOH) in a cryogenic buffer gas beam source via direct heating of strontium oxide (SrO) with 30 mJ laser pulses several milliseconds long.…
Some of us have recently reported in Science 321 232 (2008) vibrational cooling of translationally cold Cs_2 molecules into the lowest vibrational level v=0 of the singlet X 1Sigma_g ground electronic state. Starting from a sample of cold…
A general scheme for rotational cooling of diatomic heteronuclear molecules is proposed. It uses a superconducting microwave cavity to enhance the spontaneous decay via Purcell effect. Rotational cooling can be induced by sequentially…
We describe an approach to optically trapping small, chemically stable molecules at cryogenic temperatures by buffer-gas loading a deep optical dipole trap. The ~10 K trap depth will be produced by a tightly-focused, 1064-nm cavity capable…
Molecules with heavy, radioactive nuclei promise extreme sensitivity to fundamental nuclear and particle physics. However, these nuclei are available in limited quantities, which challenges their use in precision measurements. Here we…
A method for specular reflection of polar molecules is proposed. Electrostatatic potentials and forces are calculated for a low-field-seeking molecule near a series of long cylindrical electrodes of radius $r$ with dc potentials of $+V$ and…
We produce cold and dense clouds of atomic ions (Ca$^+$, Dy$^+$) by laser ablation of metal targets and cryogenic buffer gas cooling of the resulting plasma. We measure the temperature and density of the ion clouds using laser absorption…