Optical slowing of calcium monofluoride molecules

ORAL

Abstract

We report white-light slowing of calcium monofluoride molecules. A single main laser (606 nm) plus two additional vibrational repump lasers (628 nm) are employed. The slowing lasers are spectrally broadened to address the molecules' velocity spread and hyperfine splittings. We use a background-free two-photon fluorescence detection scheme to make high signal-to-noise measurements of our molecular beam's longitudinal velocity distribution. This method is applied to slow CaF produced by a two-stage cryogenic buffer gas beam source by $>$ 30 m/s to near the capture velocity of a molecular magneto-optical trap (MOT). Due to the presence of magnetic dark states which inhibit optical cycling, we will use an AC-MOT. We characterize the performance of this AC-MOT used in the trapping of Li and Yb.

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Authors

  • Aakash Ravi

    • Harvard University

  • Eunmi Chae

    • Harvard University

  • Boerge Hemmerling

    • Harvard University

  • Loic Anderegg

    • Harvard University

  • Benjamin Augenbraun

    • Harvard University

  • Garrett Drayna

    • Harvard University

  • Nicholas Hutzler

    • Harvard University

  • Alejandra Collopy

    • JILA, University of Colorado Boulder

  • Yewei Wu

    • JILA, University of Colorado Boulder

  • Shiqian Ding

    • JILA, University of Colorado Boulder

  • Jun Ye

    • JILA, University of Colorado Boulder

  • Wolfgang Ketterle

    • Massachusetts Institute of Technology

  • John Doyle

    • Harvard University