Prospects for rapid deceleration of small molecules by optical bichromatic forces

Abstract

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 transitions with internal degeneracies, then consider the specific example of decelerating a beam of calcium monofluoride molecules. We have selected CaF as a prototype molecule both because it has an easily-accessible near-cycling transition, and because it is well-suited to studies of ultracold molecular physics and chemistry. We also report experimental verification of one of the key requirements, the production of large bichromatic forces in a multi-level system, by performing tests in an atomic beam of metastable helium.

11 pages, 6 figures, revised version, to be published in Physical Review A

References in corpus (4)

• Laser cooling of a diatomic molecule
• Magneto-Optical Trap for Polar Molecules
• A Bright, Slow Cryogenic Molecular Beam Source for Free Radicals
• Lifetime of the A(v'=0) state and Franck-Condon factor of the A-X(0-0) transition of CaF measured by the saturation of laser-induced fluorescence

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• Continuous all-optical deceleration and single-photon cooling of molecular beams
• Four-Color Stimulated Optical Forces for Atomic and Molecular Slowing
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• Simulations of the bichromatic force in multilevel systems
• Large molasses-like cooling forces for molecules using polychromatic optical fields: A theoretical description
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• Deflection of barium monofluoride molecules using the bichromatic force: A density-matrix simulation
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• Laser Cooling Scheme for the Carbon Dimer (${}^{12}$C${}_2$)
• Quantum theory of statistical radiation pressure in free space