Laser Cooling Scheme for the Carbon Dimer (${}^{12}$C${}_2$)

Abstract

We report on a scheme for laser cooling of ${}^{12}$C${}_2$. We have calculated the branching ratios for cycling and repumping transitions and calculated the number of photon scatterings required to achieve deflection and laser cooling of a beam of $C_2$ molecules under realistic experimental conditions. Our results demonstrate that C${}_2$ cooling using the Swan ($d^3{\Pi }_{\text{g}}\leftrightarrow a^3{\Pi }_{\text{u}}$) and Duck ($d^3{\Pi }_{\text{g}}\leftrightarrow c^3{\Sigma }_{\text{u}}^{+}$) bands is achievable via techniques similar to state-of-the-art molecular cooling experiments. The Phillips ($A^1{\Pi }_{\text{u}}\leftrightarrow X^1{\Sigma }_{\text{g}}^{+}$) and Ballik-Ramsay ($b^3{\Sigma }_{\text{g}}^{-}\leftrightarrow a^3{\Pi }_{\text{u}}$) bands offer the potential for narrow-line cooling. This work opens up a path to cooling of molecules with carbon-carbon bonds and may pave the way toward quantum control of organic molecules.

7 pages, 5 figures

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Cited by in corpus (2)

• Laser Scheme for Doppler Cooling of the Hydroxyl Cation (OH${}^{+}$)
• Automated Graph-Based Detection of Quantum Control Schemes: Application to Molecular Laser Cooling