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arXiv · 0808.2171

Magneto-Optical Trap for Polar Molecules

Benjamin K. Stuhl·Brian C. Sawyer·Dajun Wang·Jun Ye
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Abstract

We propose a method for laser cooling and trapping a substantial class of polar molecules, and in particular titanium (II) oxide (TiO). This method uses pulsed electric fields to nonadiabatically remix the ground-state magnetic sublevels of the molecule, allowing us to build a magneto-optical trap (MOT) based on a quasi-cycling $J'=J"-1$ transition. Monte-Carlo simulations of this electrostatically remixed MOT (ER-MOT) demonstrate the feasibility of cooling TiO to a temperature of 10 $\mathrmμK$ and trapping it with a radiation-pumping-limited lifetime on the order of 80 ms.

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Benjamin K. Stuhl, Brian C. Sawyer, Dajun Wang, Jun Ye. 2008-12-12. Magneto-Optical Trap for Polar Molecules. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.101.243002

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