Related papers: Prospects for rapid deceleration of small molecule…
The manipulation of the motion of neutral molecules with electric or magnetic fields has seen tremendous progress over the last decade. Recently, these techniques have been extended to the manipulation of large and complex molecules. In…
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…
For an efficient performance of Atom Trap Trace Analysis, it is important to collimate the particles emitted from an effusive source. Their high velocity limits the interaction time with the cooling laser. Therefore forces beyond the limits…
Harnessing the potential wide-ranging quantum science applications of molecules will require control of their interactions. Here, we use microwave radiation to directly engineer and tune the interaction potentials between ultracold calcium…
Cold supersonic beams of molecules can be slowed down using a switched sequence of electrostatic field gradients. The energy to be removed is proportional to the mass of the molecules. Here we report deceleration of YbF, which is 7 times…
We reported a detailed experimental study of the cold collision of Barium monofluoride (BaF) with buffer gas and the high-resolution spectroscopy relevant with direct laser cooling. BaF molecules are efficiently produced with laser ablation…
We demonstrate a scheme for optical cycling in the polar, diatomic molecule strontium monofluoride (SrF) using the $X ^2\Sigma^+\toA^2\Pi_{1/2}$ electronic transition. SrF's highly diagonal Franck-Condon factors suppress vibrational…
We study the dynamics of a supersonic molecular beam in a low-finesse optical cavity and demonstrate that most molecules in the beam can be decelerated to zero central velocity by the intracavity optical field in a process analogous to…
The NL-eEDM collaboration is building an experimental setup to search for the permanent electric dipole moment of the electron in a slow beam of cold barium fluoride molecules [Eur. Phys. J. D, 72, 197 (2018)]. Knowledge of molecular…
Optical pumping of barium monofluoride (BaF) within a cryogenic neon matrix is demonstrated. Interestingly, with an applied magnetic field of 2~G, optical pumping is found to be considerably more efficient for a laser beam with…
We report the Stark deceleration of CaF molecules in the strong-field seeking ground state and in a weak-field seeking component of a rotationally-excited state. We use two types of decelerator, a conventional Stark decelerator for the…
The particular advantages of using the diatomic molecule radium monofluoride (RaF) as a versatile molecular probe for physics beyond the Standard Model are highlighted. i) RaF was previously suggested as being potentially amenable to direct…
Recently, laser cooling methods have been extended from atoms to molecules. The complex rotational and vibrational energy level structure of molecules makes laser cooling difficult, but these difficulties have been overcome and molecules…
Magneto-optical trapping forces for molecules are far weaker than for alkali atoms because the photon scattering rate is reduced when there are multiple ground states, and because of optical pumping into dark states. The force is further…
We demonstrate laser cooling of barium monofluoride (138BaF) molecules. We use serrodynes to synthesize time-sequenced optical spectra that can be precisely tailored to the hyperfine structure of this heaviest non-radioactive alkaline earth…
We present a theoretical analysis of a novel scheme for optical cooling of particles that does not in principle require a closed optical transition. A tightly confined laser beam interacting with a trapped particle experiences a phase…
We study laser cooling of atomic gases by collisional redistribution of fluorescence. In a high pressure buffer gas regime, frequent collisions perturb the energy levels of alkali atoms, which allows for the absorption of a far red detuned…
Quantum optics has been a major driving force behind the rapid experimental developments that have led from the first laser cooling schemes to the Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) of dilute atomic and molecular gases. Not only has it…
Barium monohydride (BaH) is an attractive candidate for extending laser cooling and trapping techniques to diatomic hydrides. The apparatus and high-resolution optical spectroscopy presented here demonstrate progress toward this goal. A…
We propose and demonstrate a novel technique that combines Raman scattering and optical cycling in molecules with diagonal Franck-Condon factors. This resonance Raman optical cycling manipulates molecules to behave like efficient…