LaserCooling

People

Post Docs

• Boerge Hemmerling

Grad Students

• Garrett Drayna
• Eunmi Chae
• Aakash Ravi

Yb blue MOT in our experiment. We have loaded a MOT from a slow buffer-gas beam source. We also can test the effects of a cold buffer-gas beam on MOTs.

Overview

Schematic in experimental plan for laser cooling of atoms and molecules

This experiment is investigating laser cooling and trapping methods as a route towards ultracold molecules. We first cool our species of interest to ~1K using buffer-gas cooling. After buffer-gas cooling, our species is extracted into a very slow beam, where laser cooling can proceed and stationary, 3D traps can be loaded. We are working to demonstrate the compatibility of buffer-gas cooling and laser cooling using atomic species, and we are working to demonstrate novel laser cooling methods in molecules.

Two-stage cryogenic buffer-gas cooled beams are an excellent precursors to laser cooling experiments as the thermal velocities of the atoms or molecules being cooled are comparable to the depth of traps (e.g., magneto-optical traps) [1-2]. In molecular systems, the buffer-gas cooled beams are relevant as well because they quench internal degrees of freedom (e.g., rotational) and thus create a large number of molecules in the ground state.

Laser Cooling of Diatomic Radicals (CaF)

---

Laser Cooling of CaF

---

References

• [1] Hsin-I Lu, Julia Rasmussen, Matthew J. Wright, Dave Patterson, and John M. Doyle. Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2011, DOI: 10.1039/c1cp21206k.
• [2] D. Patterson and J.M. Doyle. J of Chem Phys 126, 154307 (2007).
• [3] E. S. Shuman, J. F. Barry, D. R. Glenn, and D. DeMille, Phys. Rev. Lett. 103, 223001 (2009).
• [4] E. S. Shuman, J. F. Barry, and D. DeMille. Nature 467, 820 (2010).