Production and all-optical deceleration of molecular beams

Ultracold molecules open up new opportunities in many areas of study, including many-body physics, quantum chemistry, quantum information, and precision measurements. Current methods cannot easily address the spontaneous decay of molecules into dark states without an amalgam of repump lasers. We present an alternative method to produce cold molecules. A cryogenic buffer gas beam (CBGB) is used to create an intense, slow, cold source of molecules. By using a CBGB for the production, we can quench vibrational modes that cannot be addressed with optical methods. This is then followed by an all-optical scheme using a single ultra-fast laser to decelerate the molecules and a continuous wave laser to cool the species. We have started experiments with strontium monohydride (SrH), but the proposed method should be applicable to a wide range of molecular species.