Related papers: Magneto-optical trapping forces for atoms and mole…
We demonstrate a scheme for magneto-optically trapping strontium monofluoride (SrF) molecules at temperatures one order of magnitude lower and phase space densities three orders of magnitude higher than obtained previously with laser-cooled…
First laser cooling and trapping of the heavy alkaline earth element barium has been achieved based on the strong 6s$^2$ $^1$S$_0$ - 6s6p $^1$P$_1$ transition for the main cooling. Due to the large branching into metastable D-states several…
Molecular magneto-optical traps (MOTs) typically capture orders of magnitude fewer particles than their atomic counterparts due in part to their significantly lower capture velocities. Here, we employ a Stochastic Schr\"odinger Equation…
We demonstrate photophoretic force-based optical trapping of multiple absorbing particles in air by loosely focusing a Gaussian beam with a series of convex lenses of different focal lengths, and investigate the dependence of the number of…
We report magneto-optical trapping (MOT) of a polyatomic molecule, calcium monohydroxide (CaOH). The MOT contains $2.0(5)\times 10^4$ CaOH molecules at a peak density of $3.0(8)\times10^{6}$ cm$^{-3}$. CaOH molecules are further sub-Doppler…
We propose a method for laser cooling and trapping a substantial class of polar molecules, and in particular titanium (II) oxide (TiO). This method uses pulsed electric fields to nonadiabatically remix the ground-state magnetic sublevels of…
Calcium monofluoride (CaF) molecules are loaded into an optical dipole trap (ODT) and subsequently laser cooled within the trap. Starting with magneto-optical trapping, we sub-Doppler cool CaF and then load $150(30)$ CaF molecules into an…
We study the forces and optical pumping within grating magneto-optical traps (MOTs) operating on transitions with non-trivial level structure. In contrast to the standard six-beam MOT configuration, rate equation modelling predicts that the…
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…
The development of the magneto-optical trap revolutionized the fields of atomic and quantum physics by providing a simple method for the rapid production of ultracold, trapped atoms. A similar technique for producing a diverse set of dense,…
Polar molecules are desirable systems for quantum simulations and cold chemistry. Molecular ions are easily trapped, but a bias electric field applied to polarize them tends to accelerate them out of the trap. We present a general solution…
Diatomic molecules are promising systems for quantum science applications due to their complex energy structures and strong dipole-dipole interactions. Achieving ultracold temperatures is essential for these applications, but the complexity…
Sideband cooling is a popular method for cooling atoms to the ground state of an optical trap. Applying the same method to molecules requires a number of challenges to be overcome. Strong tensor Stark shifts in molecules cause the optical…
We present experimental results from a new scheme for magneto-optically trapping strontium monofluoride (SrF) molecules, which provides increased confinement compared to our original work. The improved trap employs a new approach to…
We realize laser cooling and trapping of titanium (Ti) atoms in a mangeto-optical trap (MOT). While Ti does not possess a transition suitable for laser cooling out of its $\mathrm{3d^24s^2}$ $\mathrm{a^3F}$ ground term, there is such a…
Optical trapping is a well_established, decades old technology with applications in several fields of research. The most common scenario deals with particles that tend to be centered on the brightest part of the optical trap. Consequently,…
We present a realization of a magneto-optical trap of mercury atoms on the intercombination line. We report on trapping of all stable mercury isotopes. We characterize the effect of laser detuning, laser intensity, and gradient field on the…
Laguerre-Gaussian (LG) beam has orbital angular momentum (OAM). A particle trapped in an LG beam will rotate about the beam axis, due to the transfer of OAM. The rotation of the particle is usually in the same direction as that of the beam…
We demonstrate significantly improved magneto-optical trapping of molecules using a very slow cryogenic beam source and RF modulated and DC magnetic fields. The RF MOT confines $1.1(3) \times 10^5$ CaF molecules at a density of $4(1) \times…
Magnetization reversal in GdFeCo by circularly polarized light is shown to occur at the femtosecond time scale. In contrast to the well known laser-assisted magnetization reversal based on the laser heating, we here demonstrate that this…