Related papers: Towards improved loading, cooling, and trapping of…
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…
Molecular magneto-optical traps (MOTs) typically capture orders of magnitude fewer particles than their atomic counterparts due in part to their significantly lower capture velocities. Here, we employ a Stochastic Schr\"odinger Equation…
In red-detuned magneto-optical traps (MOTs) of molecules, sub-Doppler heating competes with Doppler cooling, resulting in high temperature and low density. A solution is offered by the blue-detuned MOT where sub-Doppler cooling dominates…
We demonstrate significantly improved magneto-optical trapping of molecules using a very slow cryogenic beam source and RF modulated and DC magnetic fields. The RF MOT confines $1.1(3) \times 10^5$ CaF molecules at a density of $4(1) \times…
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…
Direct laser cooling and trapping of molecules to temperature below Doppler limit and density exceeding $10^8$ are challenging due to the sub-Doppler heating effects of molecular magneto-optical trap (MOT). In our previous paper [1], we…
We realize laser cooling and trapping of titanium (Ti) atoms in a mangeto-optical trap (MOT). While Ti does not possess a transition suitable for laser cooling out of its $\mathrm{3d^24s^2}$ $\mathrm{a^3F}$ ground term, there is such a…
Magneto-optical traps (MOTs) based on the $626\;{\rm nm}$, $136\;{\rm kHz}$-wide intercombination line of Dy, which has an attractively low Doppler temperature of $3.3\;\mu{\rm K}$, have been implemented in a growing number of experiments…
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…
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…
Diatomic molecules are promising systems for quantum science applications due to their complex energy structures and strong dipole-dipole interactions. Achieving ultracold temperatures is essential for these applications, but the complexity…
Magneto-optical trapping forces for molecules are far weaker than for alkali atoms because the photon scattering rate is reduced when there are multiple ground states, and because of optical pumping into dark states. The force is further…
We describe experiments demonstrating efficient transfer of molecules from a magneto-optical trap (MOT) into a conservative magnetic quadrupole trap. Our scheme begins with a blue-detuned optical molasses to cool SrF molecules to $\sim\!50$…
We report optical trapping of laser-cooled molecules at sufficient density to observe molecule-molecule collisions for the first time in a bulk gas. SrF molecules from a red-detuned magneto-optical trap (MOT) are compressed and cooled in a…
We demonstrate a Magneto-Optical Trap (MOT) configuration which employs optical forces due to light scattering between electronically excited states of the atom. With the standard MOT laser beams propagating along the {\it x}- and {\it y}-…
We report an experimental study of peak and phase-space density of a two-stage magneto-optical trap (MOT) of 6-Li atoms, which exploits the narrower $2S_{1/2}\rightarrow 3P_{3/2}$ ultra-violet (UV) transition at 323 nm following trapping…
We present the properties of a magneto-optical trap (MOT) of CaF molecules. We study the process of loading the MOT from a decelerated buffer-gas-cooled beam, and how best to slow this molecular beam in order to capture the most molecules.…
We propose a method for laser cooling and trapping a substantial class of polar molecules, and in particular titanium (II) oxide (TiO). This method uses pulsed electric fields to nonadiabatically remix the ground-state magnetic sublevels of…
We demonstrate a three-dimensional magneto-optical trap (MOT) of a metal hydride molecule, CaH. We are able to scatter $\sim$$10^{4}$ photons with vibrational loss covered up to vibrational quantum number $\nu=2$. This allows us to laser…
The intercombination line of Strontium at 689nm is successfully used in laser cooling to reach the photon recoil limit with Doppler cooling in a magneto-optical traps (MOT). In this paper we present a systematic study of the loading…