Direct laser cooling of calcium monohydride molecules
| Autor: | Vázquez-Carson, S. F., Sun, Q., Dai, J., Mitra, D., Zelevinsky, T. |
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| Rok vydání: | 2022 |
| Předmět: | |
| Druh dokumentu: | Working Paper |
| DOI: | 10.1088/1367-2630/ac806c |
| Popis: | We demonstrate optical cycling and sub-Doppler laser cooling of a cryogenic buffer-gas beam of calcium monohydride (CaH) molecules. We measure vibrational branching ratios for laser cooling transitions for both excited electronic states A and B. We measure further that repeated photon scattering via the $A\leftarrow X$ transition is achievable at a rate of $\sim$ $1.6\times10^6$ photons/s and demonstrate the interaction-time limited scattering of $\sim$ $200$ photons by repumping the largest vibrational decay channel. We also demonstrate the ability to sub-Doppler cool a molecular beam of CaH through the magnetically assisted Sisyphus effect. Using a standing wave of light, we lower the molecular beam's transverse temperature from $12.2(1.2)$ mK to $5.7(1.1)$ mK. We compare these results to sub-Doppler forces modeled using optical Bloch equations and Monte Carlo simulations of the molecular beam trajectories. This work establishes a clear pathway for creating a magneto-optical trap (MOT) of CaH molecules. Such a MOT could serve as a starting point for production of ultracold hydrogen gas via dissociation of a trapped CaH cloud. Comment: 11 pages, 4 figures, 3 tables |
| Databáze: | arXiv |
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