Laser cooling of optically trapped molecules
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1803.04571.pdf
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Author(s)
Anderegg, Loïc
Augenbraun, Benjamin L.
Bao, Yicheng
Burchesky, Sean
Cheuk, Lawrence W.
Doyle, John M.
Ketterle, Wolfgang
Date Issued
June 2018
Journal
Nature Physics
Publisher
Springer Nature
Citation
Anderegg, Loïc et al. “Laser Cooling of Optically Trapped Molecules.” Nature Physics 14, 9 (June 2018): 890–893 © 2018 The Author(s)
Version
Original manuscript
Abstract
Ultracold molecules are ideal platforms for many important applications, ranging from quantum simulation and quantum information processing to precision tests of fundamental physics. Producing trapped, dense samples of ultracold molecules is a challenging task. One promising approach is direct laser cooling, which can be applied to several classes of molecules not easily assembled from ultracold atoms. Here, we report the production of trapped samples of laser-cooled CaF molecules with densities of 8 × 10⁷ cm⁻³ and at phase-space densities of 2 × 10⁻⁹, 35 times higher than for sub-Doppler-cooled samples in free space. These advances are made possible by efficient laser cooling of optically trapped molecules to well below the Doppler limit, a key step towards many future applications. These range from ultracold chemistry to quantum simulation, where conservative trapping of cold and dense samples is desirable. In addition, the ability to cool optically trapped molecules opens up new paths towards quantum degeneracy.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1038/S41567-018-0191-Z
