Related papers: Accurate prediction and measurement of vibronic br…
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…
The vibrational branching ratios from the lowest excited electronic state for $\textrm{SrOCH}_3$, $\textrm{SrNH}_2$, and $\textrm{SrSH}$ are measured at the $< 0.1\%$ level. Spectra are obtained by driving the $\tilde{X} - \tilde{A}$…
Laser cooling of large, complex molecules is a long-standing goal, instrumental for enabling new quantum technology and precision measurements. A primary consideration for the feasibility of laser cooling, which determines the efficiency…
We excite YbF molecules to low-lying vibrational levels of the $A^2\Pi_{1/2}$ state, and of the nearby perturber state sometimes called [18.6]0.5. By dispersing the fluorescence, we measure branching ratios for the radiative decay to…
The vibrational branching ratios of SrOH for radiative decay to the ground electronic state, $X^{2}\Sigma^{+}$, from the first two electronically excited states, $A^{2}\Pi$ and $B^{2}\Sigma^{+}$, are determined experimentally at the…
Alkaline earth monoalkoxide free radicals (MORs) have molecular properties conducive to direct laser cooling to sub-millikelvin temperatures. Using dispersed laser induced fluorescence (DLIF) measurements from a pulsed supersonic molecular…
The simple structure of the BH molecule makes it an excellent candidate for direct laser cooling. We measure the branching ratios for the decay of the ${\rm A}^{1}\Pi (v'=0)$ state to vibrational levels of the ground state, ${\rm…
Ultracold CH radicals promise a fruitful testbed for probing quantum-state controllable organic chemistry. In this work, we calculate CH vibrational branching ratios (VBRs) and rotational branching ratios (RBRs) with ground state mixing. We…
Over the past decade, tremendous progress has been made to extend the tools of laser cooling and trapping to molecules. Those same tools have recently been applied to polyatomic molecules (molecules containing three or more atoms). In this…
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…
Doppler and Sisyphus cooling of $^{174}$YbOH are achieved and studied. This polyatomic molecule has high sensitivity to physics beyond the Standard Model and represents a new class of species for future high-precision probes of new…
Polyatomic molecules have been identified as sensitive probes of charge-parity violating and parity-violating physics beyond the Standard Model (BSM). For example, many linear triatomic molecules are both laser-coolable and have parity…
We study optical cycling in the polar free radical calcium monohydroxide (CaOH) and establish an experimental path towards scattering $\sim$$10^4$ photons. We report rovibronic branching ratio measurements with precision at the…
We present a practical roadmap to achieve optical cycling and laser cooling of asymmetric top molecules (ATMs). Our theoretical analysis describes how reduced molecular symmetry, as compared to diatomic and symmetric non-linear molecules,…
Optical Bloch equations and rate equations serve as powerful tools to model light-matter interactions from textbook-like two-level atoms to the complex internal dynamics of molecules. A particular challenge in this context is posed by…
We report on a method for measuring the branching ratios of dipole transitions of trapped atomic ions by performing nested sequences of population inversions. This scheme is broadly applicable and does not use ultrafast pulsed or narrow…
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…
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 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…
In this paper laser cooling of atoms with a narrow-line optical transition, i.e. in regimes of quantum nature of laser-light interactions resulting in a significant recoil effect, is studied. It is demonstrated that a minimum laser cooling…