Related papers: Molecular Laser-Cooling in a Dynamically Tunable R…

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…

We report observation of sub-Doppler cooling of lithium using an irregular-tetrahedral laser beam arrangement, which is produced by a nanofabricated diffraction grating. We are able to capture 11(2) % of the lithium atoms from a grating…

Current dual-frequency magneto-optical traps for ultracold molecules are plagued by sub-Doppler heating effects, making them vastly inferior to standard atomic MOTs. Here we demonstrate theoretically that the sub-Doppler effects in such a…

We have experimentally studied sub-Doppler laser cooling in a magneto-optical trap for thulium atoms working at the wavelength of 410.6\,nm. Without any dedicated molasses period of sub-Doppler cooling, the cloud of $3\times 10^6$ atoms at…

We propose and analyze a scheme for sympathetic cooling of the translational motion of polar molecules in an optical lattice, interacting one by one with laser-cooled ions in a radio-frequency trap. The energy gap between the excitation…

Sideband cooling is a popular method for cooling atoms to the ground state of an optical trap. Applying the same method to molecules requires a number of challenges to be overcome. Strong tensor Stark shifts in molecules cause the optical…

We demonstrate optical cycling and sub-Doppler laser cooling of a cryogenic buffer-gas beam of calcium monohydride (CaH) molecules. We measure vibrational branching ratios for laser cooling transitions for both excited electronic states A…

The last few years have seen rapid progress in the application of laser cooling to molecules. In this review, we examine what kinds of molecules can be laser cooled, how to design a suitable cooling scheme, and how the cooling can be…

We report laser cooling and trapping of yttrium monoxide (YO) molecules in an optical lattice. We show that gray molasses cooling remains exceptionally efficient for YO molecules inside the lattice with a molecule temperature as low as…

Ultracold atoms at temperatures close to the recoil limit have been achieved by extending Doppler cooling to forbidden transitions. A cloud of ^40Ca atoms has been cooled and trapped to a temperature as low as 6 \mu K by operating a…

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…

We demonstrate the possibility of energy-selective removal of cold atoms from a tight optical trap by means of parametric excitation of the trap vibrational modes. Taking advantage of the anharmonicity of the trap potential, we selectively…

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 propose a scheme to transfer molecules from a slow beam into an optical trap using only a single photon absorption and emission cycle. The efficiency of such a scheme is numerically explored for BaF using realistic experimental…

We introduce a method for cooling atoms in an optical dipole trap using pulse-width modulation (PWM) technique, without reducing the laser power of the dipole trap. The PWM technique involves digital modulation of the trap at a fixed…

This paper analyses the cooling of a single particle in a harmonic trap with red-detuned laser light with fewer approximations than previously done in the literature. We avoid the adiabatic elimination of the excited atomic state but are…

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…

The uncertainty of the ac Stark shift due to thermal radiation represents a major contribution to the systematic uncertainty budget of state-of-the-art optical atomic clocks. In the case of optical clocks based on trapped ions, the thermal…

Laser cooling and trapping are central to modern atomic physics. The workhorse technique in cold-atom physics is the magneto-optical trap (MOT), which combines laser cooling with a restoring force from radiation pressure. For a variety of…

Laser cooling of alkali atoms typically requires time-varying magnetic fields, introducing unwanted coupling between atom preparation and coherent operations. Here we demonstrate sub-Doppler laser cooling and optical transport of alkali…