Related papers: Magnetic trapping and coherent control of laser-co…
Polar molecules in superpositions of rotational states exhibit long-range dipolar interactions, but maintaining their coherence in a trapped sample is a challenge. We present calculations that show many laser-coolable molecules have…
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…
Trapping ultracold molecules in conservative traps is essential for applications -- such as quantum state-controlled chemistry, quantum simulations, and quantum information processing. These applications require high densities or…
We demonstrate coherent microwave control of rotational and hyperfine states of trapped, ultracold, and chemically stable $^{23}$Na$^{40}$K molecules. Starting with all molecules in the absolute rovibrational and hyperfine ground state, we…
Molecules have vibrational, rotational, spin-orbit and hyperfine degrees of freedom or quantum states, each of which responds in a unique fashion to external electromagnetic radiation. The control over superpositions of these quantum states…
We prepare mixtures of ultracold CaF molecules and Rb atoms in a magnetic trap and study their inelastic collisions. When the atoms are prepared in the spin-stretched state and the molecules in the spin-stretched component of the first…
We explore the uses of ultracold molecules as a platform for future experiments in the field of quantum simulation, focusing on two molecular species, $^{40}$Ca$^{19}$F and $^{87}$Rb$^{133}$Cs. We report the development of coherent quantum…
We demonstrate simultaneous deceleration and trapping of a cold atomic and molecular mixture. This is the first step towards studies of cold atom-molecule collisions at low temperatures as well as application of sympathetic cooling. Both…
Laser slowing of CaF molecules down to the capture velocity of a magneto-optical trap (MOT) for molecules is achieved. Starting from a two-stage buffer gas beam source, we apply frequency-broadened "white-light" slowing and observe…
Calcium monofluoride (CaF) is magnetically slowed and trapped using optical pumping. Starting from a collisionally cooled slow beam, CaF with an initial velocity of ~ 30 m/s is slowed via magnetic forces as it enters a 800 mK deep magnetic…
We report the successful buffer-gas cooling and magnetic trapping of chromium atoms with densities exceeding $10^{12}$ atoms per cm$^{3}$ at a temperature of 350 mK for the trapped sample. The possibilities to extend the method to…
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…
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…
Controlling the internal degrees of freedom is a key challenge for applications of cold and ultracold molecules. Here, we demonstrate rotational-state cooling of trapped methyl fluoride molecules (CH3F) by optically pumping the population…
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 have trapped cesium atoms over many minutes in the focus of a CO$_2$-laser beam employing an extremely simple laser system. Collisional properties of the unpolarized atoms in their electronic ground state are investigated. Inelastic…
We have demonstrated microwave-assisted coherent control of ultracold $^{85}$Rb$^{133}$Cs molecules with a ladder-type configuration of rotational states. A probe microwave (MW) field is used to couple a lower state $X^1\Sigma^+(v=0, J=1)$…
We demonstrate coherent control of both the rotational and hyperfine state of ultracold, chemically stable $^{87}$Rb$^{133}$Cs molecules with external microwave fields. We create a sample of ~2000 molecules in the lowest hyperfine level of…
We report optical trapping of laser-cooled molecules at sufficient density to observe molecule-molecule collisions for the first time in a bulk gas. SrF molecules from a red-detuned magneto-optical trap (MOT) are compressed and cooled in a…
We explore the rich internal structure of Cs_2 Feshbach molecules. Pure ultracold molecular samples are prepared in a CO_2-laser trap, and a multitude of weakly bound states is populated by elaborate magnetic-field ramping techniques. Our…