A Blue-Detuned Magneto-Optical Trap of CaF Molecules

Abstract

A key method to produce trapped and laser-cooled molecules is the magneto-optical trap (MOT), which is conventionally created using light red-detuned from an optical transition. In this work, we report a MOT for CaF molecules created using blue-detuned light. The blue-detuned MOT (BDM) achieves temperatures well below the Doppler limit, and provides the highest densities and phase-space densities reported to date in CaF MOTs. We observe short BDM lifetimes at high magnetic field gradients, preventing magnetic compression as a means to increase densities. By directly measuring the BDM restoring force, we find that the short lifetimes are explained by low effective trap depths. Notably, we find sub-mK depths at typical magnetic gradients, in contrast to $\sim 50\text{mK}$ depths in red molecular MOTs and $\sim 0.5\text{K}$ depths in red atomic MOTs.

14 pages, 10 figures

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Cited by in corpus (9)

• Three-dimensional Magneto-optical Trapping of Barium Monofluoride
• Magneto-optical trapping of a heavy polyatomic molecule for precision measurement
• 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
• Molecular laser cooling using serrodynes: Implementation, characterization and prospects
• Magneto-Optical Trapping of a Metal Hydride Molecule
• Single-photon loading of polar molecules into an optical trap
• Simulated Laser Cooling and Magneto-Optical Trapping of Group IV Atoms