Narrowline Laser Cooling of YO

ORAL

Abstract

The unique energy level structure of YO provides a metastable A' 2Δ3/2 excited state with a narrow transition linewidth Γ= 2π x 7 kHz to the electronic ground state. The existence of a near-degenerate Λ doublet within this excited state enables full molecular polarization at electric field strengths ~10 mV/cm. High precision optical Stark spectroscopy constrains the parity doublet splitting to within 7 kHz. By applying a weak electric field, a quasi-rovibrational closure scheme is implemented by addressing an isolated parity-preserving excited state. This novel cycling scheme enables the first narrowline laser cooling of a diatomic molecule with a demonstrated 20% reduction in radial temperature.

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Publication: A paper draft is in preprint

Presenters

  • Kameron Mehling

    • JILA

Authors

  • Kameron Mehling

    • JILA

  • Justin Burau

    • JILA

  • Mengjie Chen

    • University of Colorado, Boulder

  • Logan E Hillberry

    • JILA

  • Jun Ye

    • University of Colorado, Boulder
    • JILA, National Institute of Standards and Technology and University of Colorado and Department of Physics, University of Colorado, Boulder

  • Simon Scheidegger

    • JILA

  • Parul Aggarwal

    • JILA