Related papers: Probing the limits of optical cycling in a prediss…
Molecular ions that are generated by chemical reactions with trapped atomic ions can serve as an accessible testbed for developing molecular quantum technologies. On the other hand, they are also a hindrance to scaling up quantum computers…
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…
Photodissociation is the dominant removal process of molecules in any region exposed to intense ultraviolet (UV) radiation. This includes diffuse and translucent interstellar clouds, dense photon-dominated regions, high velocity shocks, the…
Cooling of molecules via free-space dissipative scattering of photons is thought not to be practicable due to the inherently large number of Raman loss channels available to molecules and the prohibitive expense of building multiple…
Ultraviolet irradiation of ice is of great interest for understanding the chemistry in both atmospheric and astrophysical environments. In interstellar space, photodissociation of H2O molecules can be a driving force behind the chemistry on…
The opacity due to photodissociation of 24MgH is investigated in the atmospheres of cool stars. The lowest two electronic transitions A 2Pi -- X 2Sigma+ and B' 2Sigma+ -- X 2 Sigma+ are considered where the cross sections for the latter…
It is well established that electronic conical intersections (CIs) in molecular systems can be induced by laser light, even in diatomic molecules. The emergence of these light-induced degeneracies leads to strong coupling among electronic,…
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…
It has been known that electronic conical intersections in a molecular system can also be created by laser light even in diatomics. The direct consequence of these light-induced degeneracies is the appearance of a strong mixing between the…
Ultracold collisions of the polyatomic species CaOH are considered, in internal states where the collisions should be dominated by long-range dipole-dipole interactions. The computed rate constants suggest that evaporative cooling can be…
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…
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,…
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…
Understanding collisions between ultracold molecules is crucial for making stable molecular quantum gases and harnessing their rich internal degrees of freedom for quantum engineering. Transient complexes can strongly influence collisional…
Chemical reactions typically proceed via stochastic encounters between reactants. Going beyond this paradigm, we combine exactly two atoms into a single, controlled reaction. The experimental apparatus traps two individual laser-cooled…
Processes that break molecular bonds are typically observed with molecules occupying a mixture of quantum states and successfully described with quasiclassical models, while a few studies have explored the distinctly quantum mechanical…
Ultracold molecular gases are promising as an avenue to rich many-body physics, quantum chemistry, quantum information, and precision measurements. This richness, which flows from the complex internal structure of molecules, makes the…
We predict that pairs of polar molecules can be weakly bound together in an ultracold environment, provided that a dc electric field is present. The field that links the molecules together also strongly influences the basic properties of…
Photodissociation of a molecule produces a spatial distribution of photofragments determined by the molecular structure and the characteristics of the dissociating light. Performing this basic chemical reaction at ultracold temperatures…
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…