Related papers: Large molasses-like cooling forces for molecules u…
We propose to sympathetically slow and cool polar molecules in a cold, low-density beam using laser-cooled Rydberg atoms. The elastic collision cross sections between molecules and Rydberg atoms are large enough to efficiently thermalize…
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…
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…
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…
Precision measurements in molecules have advanced rapidly in recent years through developments in techniques to cool, trap, and control. The complexity of molecules makes them a challenge to study, but also offers opportunities for enhanced…
The term `laser cooling' is applied to the use of optical means to cool the motional energies of either atoms and molecules, or micromirrors. In the literature, these two strands are kept largely separate; both, however suffer from severe…
We introduce, analyze, and compare two novel methods of Single Photon Cooling that generically cool and compress molecular gases. The first method compresses the molecular gas density by three orders of magnitude and increases collision…
We present a study of Sisyphus cooling of molecules: the scattering of a single-photon remove a substantial amount of the molecular kinetic energy and an optical pumping step allow to repeat the process. A review of the produced cold…
We propose a general method to cool the translational motion of molecules. Our method is an extension of single photon atomic cooling which was successfully implemented in our laboratory. Requiring a single event of absorption followed by a…
Strong optical forces with minimal spontaneous emission are desired for molecular deceleration and atom interferometry applications. We report experimental benchmarking of such a stimulated optical force driven by ultrafast laser pulses. We…
Laser cooling of molecules employing broadband optical pumping involves a timescale separation between laser excitation and spontaneous emission. Here, we optimize the optical pumping step using shaped laser pulses. We derive two…
We theoretically and computationally investigate the cooling of antihydrogen, $\bar{H}$, using optical molasses cooling. This updates the results in Ref. [1] to the current capabilities of the ALPHA experiment. Through Monte Carlo…
We present new techniques in cooling 39K atoms using laser light close to the D1 transition. First, a new compressed-MOT configuration is taking advantage of gray molasses type cooling induced by blue-detuned D1 light. It yields an…
Laser cooling to sub-Doppler temperatures by optical molasses is thought to be inhibited in atoms with unresolved, near-degenerate hyperfine structure in the excited state. We demonstrate that such cooling is possible in one to three…
Laser cooling is used to produce ultracold atoms and molecules for quantum science and precision measurement applications. Molecules are more challenging to cool than atoms due to their vibrational and rotational internal degrees of…
A recent progress on laser cooling of molecules is summarized. Since the development during 1980s for atomic species, laser cooling has been the very beginning step to cool and trap atoms for frontier research on quantum simulations,…
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…
We consider the use of pulse-shaped broadband femtosecond lasers to optically cool rotational and vibrational degrees of freedom of molecules. Since this approach relies on cooling rotational and vibrational quanta by exciting an electronic…
Supersonic beams are a prevalent source of cold molecules utilized in the study of chemical reactions, atom interferometry, gas-surface interactions, precision spectroscopy, molecular cooling and more. The triumph of this method emanates…
We theoretically investigate the collisions between ultracold polar molecules in the presence of two lasers ensuring a Raman resonant transition on individual molecules to suppress photon scattering, taking the example of bosonic…