Related papers: Vibronic coupling limits the use of high-lying ele…
We report detailed characterization of the vibronic interactions between the first two electronically excited states, A and B, in SrOPh (Ph = phenyl, -C6H5) and its deuterated counterpart, SrOPh-d5 (-C6D5). The vibronic interactions, which…
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 report a generally applicable computational and experimental approach to determine vibronic branching ratios in linear polyatomic molecules to the $10^{-5}$ level, including for nominally symmetry forbidden transitions. These methods are…
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.…
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…
Laser cycling of resonances can remove entropy from a system via spontaneously emitted photons, with electronic resonances providing the fastest cooling timescales because of their rapid relaxation rates. Although atoms are routinely laser…
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…
The methods producing cold molecules from cold atoms tend to leave molecular ensembles with substantial residual internal energy. For instance, Cs2 molecules initially formed via photoassociation of cold Cs atoms are in several vibrational…
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…
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 $\tilde{X} - \tilde{A}$…
Currently laser cooling schemes are fundamentally based on the weak coupling regime. This requirement sets the trap frequency as an upper bound to the cooling rate. In this work we present a numerical study that shows the feasibility of…
Laser cooling of molecules employing broadband optical pumping involves a timescale separation between laser excitation and spontaneous emission. Here, we optimize the optical pumping step using shaped laser pulses. We derive two…
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…
A novel laser cooling mechanism based on many body effects is presented. The method can be applicable for cooling a large class of atoms and molecules in higher density than commonly excepted by existing methods. The cooling mechanism…
A novel method of ground state laser cooling of trapped atoms utilizes the absorption profile of a three (or multi-) level system which is tailored by a quantum interference. With cooling rates comparable to conventional sideband cooling,…
Recently, laser cooling methods have been extended from atoms to molecules. The complex rotational and vibrational energy level structure of molecules makes laser cooling difficult, but these difficulties have been overcome and molecules…
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 analyze the dynamics of atom-laser interactions for atoms having multiple, closely spaced, excited-state hyperfine manifolds. The system is treated fully quantum mechanically, including the atom's center-of-mass degree of freedom, and…
This letter demonstrates the formation of vibro-polaritonic states by strong coupling gaseous nitrous oxide molecules at room temperature. The ro-vibrational features of the molecule is utilized to understand the nature of the strong…
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…