Optical pumping of trapped neutral molecules by blackbody radiation

Abstract

Optical pumping by blackbody radiation is a feature shared by all polar molecules and fundamentally limits the time that these molecules can be kept in a single quantum state in a trap. To demonstrate and quantify this, we have monitored the optical pumping of electrostatically trapped OH and OD radicals by room-temperature blackbody radiation. Transfer of these molecules to rotationally excited states by blackbody radiation at 295 K limits the $1/e$ trapping time for OH and OD in the $X^2{\Pi }_{3/2},v^{\prime \prime }=0,J^{\prime \prime }=3/2(f)$ state to 2.8 s and 7.1 s, respectively.

corrected small mistakes; added journal reference.

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