Improved magneto-optical trapping of a diatomic molecule

Abstract

We present experimental results from a new scheme for magneto-optically trapping strontium monofluoride (SrF) molecules, which provides increased confinement compared to our original work. The improved trap employs a new approach to magneto-optical trapping presented by M. Tarbutt, \emph{arXiv preprint} 1409.0244, which provided insight for the first time into the source of the restoring force in magneto-optical traps (MOTs) where the cycling transition includes dark Zeeman sublevels (known as type-II MOTs). We measure a radial spring constant $20\times$ greater than in our original work with SrF, comparable to the spring constants reported in atomic type-II MOTs. We achieve a trap lifetime ${\tau }_{\mathrm{MOT}}=136(2)$~ms, over $2\times$ longer than originally reported for SrF. Finally, we demonstrate further cooling of the trapped molecules by briefly increasing the trapping lasers' detunings. Our trapping scheme remains a straightforward extension of atomic techniques and marks a step towards the direct production of large, dense, ultracold molecular gases via laser cooling.

arXiv comment18 pages, 6 figures

References in corpus (21)

• A High Phase-Space-Density Gas of Polar Molecules
• Quantum computation with trapped polar molecules
• Cold and Ultracold Molecules: Science, Technology, and Applications
• Laser cooling of a diatomic molecule
• Optical Production of Ultracold Polar Molecules
• Magneto-optical trapping of a diatomic molecule
• Magneto-optical trapping of diatomic molecules
• Quantum gas of rovibronic ground-state molecules in an optical lattice
• Laser cooling and slowing of CaF molecules
• Coherent transfer of photoassociated molecules into the rovibrational ground state
• Radiative force from optical cycling on a diatomic molecule
• Magneto-Optical Trap for Polar Molecules
• Evaporative cooling of the dipolar radical OH
• Laser radiation pressure slowing of a molecular beam
• Design for a fountain of YbF molecules to measure the electron's electric dipole moment
• Ultracold molecules: new probes on the variation of fundamental constants
• A Bright, Slow Cryogenic Molecular Beam Source for Free Radicals
• Magneto-optical trapping forces for atoms and molecules with complex level structures
• On the Prospects for Laser Cooling of TlF
• Prospects for rapid deceleration of small molecules by optical bichromatic forces
• Chemical pathways in ultracold reactions of SrF molecules

Cited by in corpus (46)

• Molecules cooled below the Doppler limit
• Sisyphus Laser Cooling of a Polyatomic Molecule
• Ultracold molecules for measuring the electron's electric dipole moment
• Sub-millikelvin dipolar molecules in a radio-frequency magneto-optical trap
• Laser-Cooled Polyatomic Molecules for Improved Electron Electric Dipole Moment Searches
• Ultracold molecules for quantum simulation: rotational coherences in CaF and RbCs
• Magnetically-Trapped Molecules Efficiently Loaded from a Molecular MOT
• Magnetic trapping and coherent control of laser-cooled molecules
• Rotational state microwave mixing for laser cooling of complex diatomic molecules
• 1D Magneto-Optical Trap of Polyatomic Molecules
• Sub-Doppler Cooling and Compressed Trapping of YO Molecules at $\mu$K Temperatures
• Laser cooling of molecules
• Grey-molasses optical-tweezer loading: Controlling collisions for scaling atom-array assembly
• Laser slowing of CaF molecules to near the capture velocity of a molecular MOT
• Strongly interacting ultracold polar molecules
• Laser cooled molecules
• Molecular Asymmetry and Optical Cycling: Laser Cooling Asymmetric Top Molecules
• An intense, cold, velocity-controlled molecular beam by frequency-chirped laser slowing
• Characteristics of a magneto-optical trap of molecules
• Three-dimensional Doppler, polarization-gradient, and magneto-optical forces for atoms and molecules with dark states
• Shielding ${}^2\Sigma$ ultracold dipolar molecular collisions with electric fields
• Methods for measuring the electron EDM using ultracold YbF molecules
• Modeling magneto-optical trapping of CaF molecules
• Adimensional theory of shielding in ultracold collisions of dipolar rotors
• Ultracold hydrogen and deuterium production via Doppler-cooled Feshbach molecules
• Modeling sympathetic cooling of molecules by ultracold atoms
• BaH molecular spectroscopy with relevance to laser cooling
• Blue-detuned magneto-optical trap
• Prospects for a Narrow Line MOT in YO
• Laser cooling and magneto-optical trapping of molecules analyzed using optical Bloch equations and the Fokker-Planck-Kramers equation
• Principles and design of a Zeeman-Sisyphus decelerator for molecular beams
• Deceleration and trapping of SrF molecules
• Controlling the ac Stark effect of RbCs with dc electric and magnetic fields
• Ultracold nonreactive molecules in an optical lattice: connecting chemistry to many-body physics
• Complexes formed in collisions between ultracold alkali-metal diatomic molecules and atoms
• A Blue-Detuned Magneto-Optical Trap of CaF Molecules
• Coherent Manipulation of the Internal State of Ultracold ${}^{87}$Rb${}^{133}$Cs Molecules with Multiple Microwave Fields
• One dimensional magneto-optical compression of a cold CaF molecular beam
• Microscopic derivation of multi-channel Hubbard models for ultracold nonreactive molecules in an optical lattice
• Fast optical transport of ultracold molecules over long distances
• Characterizing the Zeeman slowing force for ${}^{40}$Ca${}^{19}$F molecules
• Multivalent optical cycling centers in polyatomic molecules
• Laser cooling of molecules
• The Li + CaF $\to$ Ca + LiF chemical reaction under cold conditions
• Bichromatic magneto-optical trapping for $J\to J,J-1$ configurations
• Molecule-molecule and atom-molecule collisions with ultracold RbCs molecules