Fast optical transport of ultracold molecules over long distances

Abstract

Optically trapped laser-cooled polar molecules hold promise for new science and technology in quantum information and quantum simulation. Large numerical aperture optical access and long trap lifetimes are needed for many studies, but these requirements are challenging to achieve in a magneto-optical trap (MOT) vacuum chamber that is connected to a cryogenic buffer gas beam source, as is the case for all molecule laser cooling experiments so far. Long distance transport of molecules greatly eases fulfilling these requirements as molecules are placed into a region separate from the MOT chamber. We realize a fast transport method for ultracold molecules based on an electronically focus-tunable lens combined with an optical lattice. The high transport speed is achieved by the 1D red-detuned optical lattice, which is generated by interference of a focus-tunable laser beam and a focus-fixed laser beam. Efficiency of 48(8)% is realized in the transport of ultracold calcium monofluoride (CaF) molecules over 46 cm distance in 50 ms, with a moderate heating from 32(2) μK to 53(4) μK. Positional stability of the molecular cloud allows for stable loading of an optical tweezer array with single molecules.

21 pages, 7 figures

References in corpus (14)

• Cold molecules: Progress in Quantum Engineering of Chemistry and Quantum Matter
• Magneto-optical trapping of a diatomic molecule
• Precision Measurement of Time-Reversal Symmetry Violation with Laser-Cooled Polyatomic Molecules
• Radio Frequency Magneto-Optical Trapping of CaF with High Density
• Magneto-Optical Trapping and Sub-Doppler Cooling of a Polyatomic Molecule
• Long Distance Transport of Ultracold Atoms using a 1D optical lattice
• Rotational Coherence Times of Polar Molecules in Optical Tweezers
• Improved magneto-optical trapping of a diatomic molecule
• High Phase-Space Density of Laser-Cooled Molecules in an Optical Lattice
• Polarization Enhanced Deep Optical Dipole Trapping of $\Lambda$-cooled Polar Molecules
• Optical transport and manipulation of an ultracold atomic cloud using focus-tunable lenses
• Fast long-distance transport of cold cesium atoms
• Long range transport of ultra cold atoms in a far-detuned 1D optical lattice
• A general approach to state-dependent optical tweezer traps for polar molecules

Cited by in corpus (3)

• The ${}^1{\mathrm{S}}_0$-${}^3{\mathrm{P}}_2$ magnetic quadrupole transition in neutral strontium
• Long distance optical conveyor-belt transport of ultracold ${}^{133}$Cs and ${}^{87}$Rb atoms
• Sub-Doppler laser cooling and magnetic trapping of natural-abundance fermionic potassium