Related papers: Large molasses-like cooling forces for molecules u…
Rapid and repeated photon cycling has enabled precision metrology and the development of quantum information systems using a variety of atoms and simple molecules. Extending optical cycling to structurally complex molecules would provide…
We propose a laser cooling concept for the translational motion of molecules which does not require repeated spontaneous emission by each molecule. The cooling works by repetition of three main steps: velocity selection of a narrow momentum…
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.…
Reabsorption, the multiple scattering of spontaneously emitted photons in optically thick gases, is a major limitation to efficient optical pumping and laser cooling in ultracold gases. We report mitigation of reabsorption using spatial and…
Since the advent of atom laser-cooling, trapping or cooling natural molecules has been a long standing and challenging goal. Here, we demonstrate a method for laser-trapping molecules that is radically novel in its configuration, in its…
Mass spectrometry is used in a wide range of scientific disciplines including proteomics, pharmaceutics, forensics, and fundamental physics and chemistry. Given this ubiquity, there is a worldwide effort to improve the efficiency and…
We propose a method of stimulated laser cooling of diatomic molecules by counter-propagating $\pi$-trains of ultrashort laser pulses. The cooling cycles occur on the rovibrational transitions inside the same ground electronic manifold, thus…
The direct laser cooling of neutral diatomic molecules in molecular beams suggests that trapped molecular ions can also be laser cooled. The long storage time and spatial localization of trapped molecular ions provides the opportunity for…
We present a novel optical cooling scheme that relies on hyperfine dark states to enhance loading and cooling atoms inside deep optical dipole traps. We demonstrate a seven-fold increase in the number of atoms loaded in the conservative…
A novel laser cooling mechanism based on many body effects is presented. The method can be applicable for cooling a large class of atoms and molecules in higher density than commonly excepted by existing methods. The cooling mechanism…
We present a novel slowing scheme for beams of laser-coolable diatomic molecules reminiscent of Zeeman slowing of atomic beams. The scheme results in efficient compression of the 1-dimensional velocity distribution to velocities trappable…
Coherent optical bichromatic forces have been shown to be effective tools for rapidly slowing and cooling simple atomic systems. While previous estimates suggest that these forces may also be effective for rapidly decelerating molecules or…
In recent experiments on ultracold matter, molecules have been produced from ultracold atoms by photoassociation, Feshbach resonances, and three-body recombination. The created molecules are translationally cold, but vibrationally highly…
We introduce a scheme for deep laser cooling of molecules based on robust dark states at zero velocity. By simulating this scheme, we show it to be a widely applicable method that can reach the recoil limit or below. We demonstrate and…
It has been roughly three decades since laser cooling techniques produced ultracold atoms, leading to rapid advances in a vast array of fields. Unfortunately laser cooling has not yet been extended to molecules because of their complex…
Laser cooling is a powerful method to control molecules for applications in precision measurement, as well as quantum information, many-body physics, and fundamental chemistry. However, many optically-active metal centers in valence states…
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…
Aluminium monofluoride (AlF) is a promising candidate for laser cooling and trapping at high densities. We show efficient production of AlF in a bright, pulsed cryogenic buffer gas beam, and demonstrate rapid optical cycling on the Q…
Ultracold polyatomic molecules offer intriguing new opportunities in cold chemistry, precision measurements, and quantum information processing, thanks to their rich internal structure. However, their increased complexity compared to…
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…