Radiative Branching Ratios for Excited States of ${}^{174}$YbF: Application to Laser Cooling

Abstract

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 vibrational levels of the $X^2{\Sigma }^{+}$ state. These ratios help to determine the optimum laser cooling scheme for the molecule. Our results establish the practicality of a scheme that was previously suggested [Tarbutt et al., New J. Phys. 15 (2013) 053034] and show how the scheme can be modified to provide a stronger radiative cooling force.

5 pages

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