Related papers: Spatially separating the conformers of the dipepti…
Supersonic beams of polar molecules are deflected using inhomogeneous electric fields. The quantum-state selectivity of the deflection is used to spatially separate molecules according to their quantum state. A detailed analysis of the…
We demonstrate that a near-dissociation photoassociation resonance can be used to create a deeply bound molecular sample of ultracold NaCs. To probe the resulting vibrational distribution of the sample, we use a new technique that can be…
Precise measurement of the particle number, spatial distribution and internal state is fundamental to all proposed experiments with ultracold molecules both in bulk gases and optical lattices. Here, we demonstrate in-situ detection of…
Methyl vinyl ketone (C$_4$H$_6$O) is a volatile, labile organic compound of importance in atmospheric chemistry. We prepared a molecular beam of methyl vinyl ketone with a rotational temperature of 1.2(2)~K and demonstrated the spatial…
We demonstrate the spatial separation of the cis- and trans-conformers of 3-fluorophenol in the gas phase based on their distinct electric dipole moments. For both conformers we create very polar samples of their lowest-energy rotational…
We present a comprehensive characterization of cold molecular beams from a cryogenic buffer-gas cell, providing an insight into the physics of buffer-gas cooling. Cold molecular beams are extracted from a cryogenic cell by electrostatic…
A beam of diatomic molecules scattered off a standing wave laser mode splits according to the rovibrational quantum state of the molecules. Our numerical calculation shows that single state resolution can be achieved by properly tuned,…
The methods producing cold molecules from cold atoms tend to leave molecular ensembles with substantial residual internal energy. For instance, Cs2 molecules initially formed via photoassociation of cold Cs atoms are in several vibrational…
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 give a detailed account of the theoretical analysis and the experimental results of an x-ray-diffraction experiment on quantum-state selected and strongly laser-aligned gas-phase ensembles of the prototypical large asymmetric rotor…
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…
We present a laser beam shaping method using acousto-optic deflection of light and discuss its application to dipole trapping of ultracold atoms. By driving the acousto-optic deflector with multiple frequencies, we generate an array of…
A strong inhomogeneous static electric field is used to spatially disperse a supersonic beam of polar molecules, according to their quantum state. We show that the molecules residing in the lowest-lying rotational states can be selected and…
Effective and unrestricted engineering of atom-photon interactions requires precise spatially-resolved control of light beams. The significant potential of such manipulations lies in a set of disciplines ranging from solid state to atomic…
Ultracold LiCs molecules in the absolute ground state X$^1\Sigma^+$, v"=0, J"=0 are formed via a single photo-association step starting from laser-cooled atoms. The selective production of v"=0, J"=2 molecules with a 50-fold higher rate is…
Intense beams of cold and slow molecules are produced by supersonic expansion out of a rapidly rotating nozzle, as first demonstrated by Gupta and Herschbach. An improved setup is presented that allows to accelerate or decelerate cold…
Molecular laser cooling and trapping requires addressing all spontaneous decays to excited vibrational states that occur at the $\gtrsim 10^{-4} - 10^{-5}$ level, which is accomplished by driving repumping transitions out of these states.…
We report experimental results on x-ray diffraction of quantum-state-selected and strongly aligned ensembles of the prototypical asymmetric rotor molecule 2,5-diiodobenzonitrile using the Linac Coherent Light Source. The experiments…
We propose an approach to probe coherent spin-state dynamics of molecules using circularly polarized hard x-ray pulses. For the dynamically aligned nitric oxide molecules in a coherent superposition spin-orbit coupled electronic state that…
We propose an experimental protocol for using cold atoms to create and probe quantum dimer models, thereby exploring the Pauling-Anderson vision of a macroscopic collection of resonating bonds. This process can allow the study of exotic…