Related papers: Slowing YbF molecules using radiation pressure
Polar heavy-atom molecules have been well recognized as promising candidates for precision measurements and tests of fundamental physics. A much slower molecular beam to increase the interaction time should lead to a more sensitive…
The YbF molecule is a sensitive system for measuring the electron's electric dipole moment. The precision of this measurement can be improved by direct laser cooling of the molecules to ultracold temperature. However, low-lying electronic…
There is substantial interest in producing samples of ultracold molecules for possible applications in quantum computation, quantum simulation of condensed matter systems, precision measurements, controlled chemistry, and high precision…
Cold supersonic beams of molecules can be slowed down using a switched sequence of electrostatic field gradients. The energy to be removed is proportional to the mass of the molecules. Here we report deceleration of YbF, which is 7 times…
Precision measurements of the electron's electric dipole moment (eEDM) are critical for testing fundamental symmetries in particle physics, and heavy polar molecules-such as barium monofluoride (BaF)-have emerged as promising candidates for…
We demonstrate slowing and longitudinal cooling of a supersonic beam of CaF molecules using counter-propagating laser light resonant with a closed rotational and almost closed vibrational transition. A group of molecules are decelerated by…
We use two-dimensional transverse laser cooling to produce an ultracold beam of YbF molecules. Through experiments and numerical simulations, we study how the cooling is influenced by the polarization configuration, laser intensity, laser…
Using frequency-chirped radiation pressure slowing, we precisely control the velocity of a pulsed CaF molecular beam down to a few m/s, compressing its velocity spread by a factor of 10 while retaining high intensity: at a velocity of…
We study the properties of a cryogenic buffer gas source that uses a low temperature two-stage buffer gas cell to produce very slow beams of ytterbium monofluoride molecules. The molecules are produced by laser ablation inside the cell and…
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…
YbF has been identified as a molecule that can be used to investigate charge-parity symmetry violations that are beyond the Standard Model of particle physics. Cooling to sub-milli-Kelvin is advantageous for experiments that probe…
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 examine two approaches for significantly extending the velocity range of the optical bichromatic force (BCF), to make it useful for laser deceleration of atomic and molecular beams. First, we present experimental results and calculations…
We produce YbF molecules with a density of 10^18 m^-3 using laser ablation inside a cryogenically-cooled cell filled with a helium buffer gas. Using absorption imaging and absorption spectroscopy we study the formation, diffusion,…
We demonstrate one-dimensional sub-Doppler laser cooling of a beam of YbF molecules to 100 $\mu$K. This is a key step towards a measurement of the electron's electric dipole moment using ultracold molecules. We compare the effectiveness of…
We demonstrate the mixing of rotational states in the ground electronic state using microwave radiation to enhance optical cycling in the molecule yttrium (II) monoxide (YO). This mixing technique is used in conjunction with a frequency…
We analyzed bichromatic and polychromatic stimulated forces for laser cooling and trapping of Yb atoms using only the narrow $^1S_0\rightarrow^3P_1$ transition. Our model is based on numerical solutions of optical Bloch equations for…
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…
We examine the prospects for utilizing the optical bichromatic force (BCF) to greatly enhance laser deceleration and cooling for near-cycling transitions in small molecules. We discuss the expected behavior of the BCF in near-cycling…
We analyze possible motion control of microparticles by means of external electromagnetic fields which induce potential wells having fixed spatial distribution but deepening over time up to some limit. It is assumed that given particles are…