Laser cooling of barium monofluoride molecules using synthesized optical spectra

Abstract

We demonstrate laser cooling of barium monofluoride (138BaF) molecules. We use serrodynes to synthesize time-sequenced optical spectra that can be precisely tailored to the hyperfine structure of this heaviest non-radioactive alkaline earth monofluoride. By optimizing these optical spectra, we realize strong Sisyphus cooling forces that efficiently collimate a molecular beam. Our technique is an important step towards using intense beams of barium monofluoride for precision measurement applications, and will be useful for cooling other molecular species with complex level structure.

References in corpus (11)

• 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
• Using Molecules to Measure Nuclear Spin-Dependent Parity Violation
• Magneto-Optical Trap for Polar Molecules
• High accuracy theoretical investigations of CaF, SrF, and BaF and implications for laser-cooling
• Structures, Branching Ratios and Laser Cooling Scheme for 138BaF Molecule
• Radiative deflection of a BaF molecular beam from the optical cycling
• Cold collision and high-resolution spectroscopy of buffer gas cooled BaF Molecule
• Doppler cooling of buffer-gas-cooled Barium monofluoride molecules
• Absorption spectroscopy for laser cooling and high-fidelity detection of barium monofluoride molecules

Cited by in corpus (9)

• Isotopologue-selective laser cooling of molecules
• Laser cooled 137BaF molecules for measuring nuclear-spin-dependent parity violation
• Molecular laser cooling using serrodynes: Implementation, characterization and prospects
• Magnetic hyperfine structure constants of ${}^{137}$BaF in the ${}^2{\Pi }_{1/2}$ and ${}^2{\Pi }_{3/2}$ excited states
• High-resolution spectroscopy of barium monofluoride: Odd isotopologues, hyperfine structure and isotope shifts
• Global isotopic analysis of hyperfine-resolved rotational spectroscopic data for barium monofluoride, BaF
• Single-photon loading of polar molecules into an optical trap
• Optical pumping and laser slowing of a heavy molecule
• Spin interferometry in a beam of ultracold molecules