High density loading and collisional loss of laser cooled molecules in an optical trap

Abstract

We report optical trapping of laser-cooled molecules at sufficient density to observe molecule-molecule collisions for the first time in a bulk gas. SrF molecules from a red-detuned magneto-optical trap (MOT) are compressed and cooled in a blue-detuned MOT. Roughly 30% of these molecules are loaded into an optical dipole trap with peak number density $n_0\approx 3\times 10^{10}{\text{ cm}}^{-3}$ and temperature $T\approx 40$ $\mu$K. We observe two-body loss with rate coefficient $\beta =2.7_{-0.8}^{+1.2}\times 10^{-10}{\text{ cm}}^3{\text{ s}}^{-1}$. Achieving this density and temperature opens a path to evaporative cooling towards quantum degeneracy of laser-cooled molecules.

6+6 pages, 4+3 figures (main text + supplemental material)

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• Prospects for measuring the electron's electric dipole moment with polyatomic molecules in an optical lattice
• Magneto-optical trapping of aluminum monofluoride
• Collisions of Spin-polarized YO Molecules for Single Partial Waves
• Role of spontaneously generated coherence (SGC) in laser cooling of atoms
• Magneto-Optical Trapping of a Metal Hydride Molecule
• Simulated Laser Cooling and Magneto-Optical Trapping of Group IV Atoms
• Confinement-induced resonances for the creation of quasi-one-dimensional ultra cold gases of alkali--alkaline-earth dimers
• Strongly dipolar molecular Bose-Einstein condensates: From few- to many-body physics
• Narrowline Laser Cooling and Spectroscopy of Molecules via Stark States