Deflection of a Molecular Beam Using the Bichromatic Stimulated Force

Abstract

We demonstrate that a bichromatic standing-wave laser field can exert a significantly larger force on a molecule than ordinary radiation pressure. Our experiment measures the deflection of a pulsed supersonic beam of CaF molecules by a two-frequency laser field detuned symmetrically about resonance with the nearly closed $X(v=0)\to B(v^{\prime }=0)$ transition. The inferred force as a function of relative phase between the two counterpropagating beams is in reasonable agreement with numerical simulations of the bichromatic force in this multilevel system. The large magnitude of the force, coupled with the reduced rate of spontaneous emission, indicates its potential utility in the production and manipulation of ultracold molecules.

arXiv comment5 Pages, 4 figures

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Cited by in corpus (15)

• Laser cooled molecules
• Molecular Asymmetry and Optical Cycling: Laser Cooling Asymmetric Top Molecules
• Spectroscopic characterization of aluminum monofluoride with relevance to laser cooling and trapping
• Buffer-gas cooling, high-resolution spectroscopy and optical cycling of barium monofluoride molecules
• Determination of CaOH and CaOCH${}_3$ vibrational branching ratios for direct laser cooling and trapping
• Prospects for laser cooling of polyatomic molecules with increasing complexity
• A laser cooling scheme for precision measurements using barium monofluoride (137Ba19F) molecules
• Large molasses-like cooling forces for molecules using polychromatic optical fields: A theoretical description
• Suppressed spontaneous emission for coherent momentum transfer
• Multivalent optical cycling centers in polyatomic molecules
• Radiation forces and torques in optics and acoustics
• Hyperfine structure of the ${\mathbf{A}}^1\mathbf{\Pi }$ state of AlCl and its relevance to laser cooling and trapping
• Deflection of barium monofluoride molecules using the bichromatic force: A density-matrix simulation
• Frequency-doubled Nd:YAG MOPA laser system with programmable rectangular pulses up to 200 microseconds
• Stimulated Slowing of Yb Atoms on the Narrow ${}^1{S}_0{\to }^3{P}_1$ Transition