Related papers: Laser-coolable polyatomic molecules with heavy nuc…
We consider a laser cooling and trapping of alkaline-earth and similar atoms in a bichromatic field resonant to a closed optical transition $^1S_0 \to \, ^1P_1$ or $^1S_0 \to \, ^3P_1$. It is shown that new kinetic effects emerge compared…
We demonstrate sub-Doppler laser cooling and magneto-optical trapping of the rare earth element Holmium. Atoms are loaded from an atomic beam source and captured in six-beam $\sigma_+ - \sigma_-$ molasses using a strong $J=15/2…
We demonstrate the ability to load, cool and detect singly-charged calcium ions in a surface electrode trap using only visible and infrared lasers for the trapped-ion control. As opposed to the standard methods of cooling using…
Deep laser cooling of atoms, ions, and molecules facilitates the study of fundamental physics as well as applied research. In this work, we report on the narrow-line laser cooling of thulium atoms at the wavelength of $506.2\,\textrm{nm}$…
We experimentally demonstrate a variation on a Sisyphus cooling technique that was proposed for cooling antihydrogen. In our implementation, atoms are selectively excited to an electronic state whose energy is spatially modulated by an…
Direct laser cooling of molecules has reached a phase space density exceeding 10$^{-6}$ in optical traps, but with rather small molecular numbers. To progress towards quantum degeneracy, a mechanism is needed that combines sub-Doppler…
Direct laser-coolability and a comparatively simple electronic structure render alkaline-earth metal monofluoride molecules versatile laboratories for precision tests of fundamental physics. In this theoretical work, a route for efficient…
Radiation pressure forces in a focussed laser beam can be used to trap microscopic absorbing particles against a substrate. Calculations based on momentum transfer considerations show that stable trapping occurs before the beam waist, and…
We present a method to design a finite decay rate for excited rotational states in polar molecules. The setup is based on a hybrid system of polar molecules with atoms driven into a Rydberg state. The atoms and molecules are coupled via the…
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…
Chemical reactions typically proceed via stochastic encounters between reactants. Going beyond this paradigm, we combine exactly two atoms into a single, controlled reaction. The experimental apparatus traps two individual laser-cooled…
We study theoretically the behavior of laser-cooled calcium monofluoride (CaF) molecules in an optical molasses and magneto-optical trap (MOT), and compare our results to recent experiments. We use multi-level optical Bloch equations to…
We have recently demonstrated that optical pumping methods combined with photoassociation of ultra-cold atoms can produce ultra-cold and dense samples of molecules in their absolute rovibronic ground state. More generally, both the external…
Generally, the conditions for deep sub-Doppler laser cooling do not match the conditions for the strong atomic localization that takes a place in deeper optical potential and, in consequence, leads to larger temperature. Moreover, for a…
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…
We consider how trapped molecules can be sympathetically cooled by ultracold atoms. As a prototypical system, we study LiH molecules co-trapped with ultracold Li atoms. We calculate the elastic and inelastic collision cross sections of LiH…
We review the use of laser cooling and trapping for Standard Model tests, focusing on trapping of radioactive isotopes. Experiments with neutral atoms trapped with modern laser cooling techniques are testing several basic predictions of…
We sympathetically cool a trapped 112Cd+ ion by directly Doppler-cooling a 114Cd+ ion in the same trap. This is the first demonstration of optically addressing a single trapped ion being sympathetically cooled by a different species ion.…
We report on the realization of sub-Doppler laser cooling of sodium atoms in gray molasses using the D1 optical transition ($3s\, ^2S_{1/2} \rightarrow 3p\, ^2P_{1/2}$) at 589.8 nm. The technique is applied to samples containing…
A study of the intensity-borrowing mechanisms important to optical cycling transitions in laser-coolable polyatomic molecules arising from non-adiabatic coupling, contributions beyond the Franck-Condon approximation, and Fermi resonances is…