Related papers: Coherent Molecular Deceleration via Vibrational Bi…
Strong optical forces with minimal spontaneous emission are desired for molecular deceleration and atom interferometry applications. We report experimental benchmarking of such a stimulated optical force driven by ultrafast laser pulses. We…
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 demonstrate the deceleration of heavy polar molecules in low-field seeking states by combining a cryogenic source and a travelling-wave Stark decelerator. The cryogenic source provides a high intensity beam with low speed and…
We investigate the dynamics of molecular photoexcitation by unchirped femtosecond laser pulses using RbCs as a model system. This study is motivated by a goal of optimizing a two-color scheme of transferring vibrationally-excited ultracold…
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…
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.…
We study the dynamics of a supersonic molecular beam in a low-finesse optical cavity and demonstrate that most molecules in the beam can be decelerated to zero central velocity by the intracavity optical field in a process analogous to…
Molecular vibrations and their dynamics are of outstanding importance for electronic and thermal transport in nanoscale devices as well as for molecular catalysis. The vibrational dynamics of <100 molecules are studied through three-colour…
Molecular ions can be held in a chain of laser-cooled atomic ions by sympathetic cooling. This system is ideal for performing high-precision molecular spectroscopy with applications in astrochemistry and fundamental physics. Here we show…
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…
Cryogenic buffer-gas beams are a promising method for producing bright sources of cold molecular radicals for cold collision and chemical reaction experiments. In order to use these beams in studies of reactions with controlled collision…
Some of us have recently reported in Science 321 232 (2008) vibrational cooling of translationally cold Cs_2 molecules into the lowest vibrational level v=0 of the singlet X 1Sigma_g ground electronic state. Starting from a sample of cold…
With a specific choice of laser parameters resulting into a so-called exceptional point in the wavelength-intensity plane, it is possible to produce the coalescence of two Floquet resonances describing the photodissociation of the molecule…
We explore a technique for decelerating molecules using a static magnetic field and optical pumping. Molecules travel through a spatially varying magnetic field and are repeatedly pumped into a weak-field seeking state as they move towards…
We demonstrate buffer-gas cooling, high-resolution spectroscopy and cycling fluorescence of cold barium monofluoride (BaF) molecules. Our source produces an intense and internally cold molecular beam containing the different BaF…
Recent theoretical investigations have indicated that rapid optical cycling should be feasible in complex polyatomic molecules with diverse constituents, geometries and symmetries. However, as a composite molecular mass grows, so does the…
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…
Ultrafast laser excitation can trigger multiplex coherent dynamics in molecules. Here, we report attosecond transient absorption experiments addressing simultaneous probing of electronic and vibrational dynamics in a prototype molecule,…
Optical cycling transitions and direct laser cooling have recently been demonstrated for a number of alkaline-earth dimers and trimer molecules. This is made possible by diagonal Franck-Condon factors between the vibrational modes of the…
Currently, there is great interest in laser cooling of barium monofluoride (BaF) molecules for precision tests of fundamental symmetries. We use high-resolution absorption spectroscopy to characterize several as yet imprecisely known…