Polarization Enhanced Deep Optical Dipole Trapping of $\Lambda$-cooled Polar Molecules

Abstract

We demonstrate loading of SrF molecules into an optical dipole trap (ODT) via in-trap $\Lambda$-cooling. We find that this cooling can be optimized by a proper choice of relative ODT and $\Lambda$ beam polarizations. In this optimized configuration, we observe molecules with temperatures as low as 14(1) $\mu$K in traps with depths up to 570 $\mu$K. With optimized parameters, we transfer $\sim 5$% of molecules from our radio-frequency magneto-optical trap into the ODT, at a density of $\sim 2\times 10^9$ cm${}^{-3}$, a phase space density of $\sim 2\times 10^{-7}$, and with a trap lifetime of $\sim 1$ s.

7 pages main text (4 figures) plus references, additional 12 pages (2 figures) for supplemental material plus references; incorporated correction to trap depth calculation

References in corpus (17)

• A High Phase-Space-Density Gas of Polar Molecules
• Strongly correlated 2D quantum phases with cold polar molecules: controlling the shape of the interaction potential
• Ultracold Dipolar Gas of Fermionic ${}^{23}$Na${}^{40}$K Molecules in their Absolute Ground State
• Magneto-optical trapping of a diatomic molecule
• Creation of ultracold ${}^{87}$RbCs molecules in the rovibrational ground state
• Schemes for robust quantum computation with polar molecules
• Radio Frequency Magneto-Optical Trapping of CaF with High Density
• Cold Atoms and Molecules in Self-Assembled Dipolar Lattices
• Anisotropic Polarizability of Ultracold Polar ${}^{40}$K${}^{87}$Rb Molecules
• Efficient all-optical production of large ${}^6$Li quantum gases using D${}_1$ gray-molasses cooling
• High accuracy theoretical investigations of CaF, SrF, and BaF and implications for laser-cooling
• Three-dimensional Doppler, polarization-gradient, and magneto-optical forces for atoms and molecules with dark states
• Electric field-dependent dynamic polarizability and "magic" conditions for optical trapping of polar molecules
• 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
• Collisions Between Ultracold Molecules and Atoms in a Magnetic Trap
• AC Stark Effect in Ultracold Polar RbCs Molecules
• Anisotropic Polarizability of Ultracold Ground-state ${}^{23}$Na${}^{87}$Rb Molecules

Cited by in corpus (2)

• Quantum control of molecules for fundamental physics
• Ultracold ${}^{88}{\mathrm{Sr}}_2$ molecules in the absolute ground state