Laser Cooling and Trapping of Diatomic Molecules

Abstract

The overall theme of this work is to continue developing methods for direct laser cooling and trapping of molecules, and specifically the diatomic molecule SrF. This builds off our recent demonstration of the first-ever magneto-optical trap (MOT) for a molecule. The MOT is the workhorse technique for creating ultracold atomic gases, and we are working to make the molecular MOT a similarly powerful and versatile tool. The specific major goals of this work include: --Increase the phase-space density of SrF molecules trapped in a MOT --Transfer SrF molecules to a conservative trap --Study ultracold atom-molecule and/or molecule-molecule collisions using SrF --Apply large optical forces to molecules using a novel tunable laser system

Document Details

Document Type
DoD Grant Award
Publication Date
Sep 11, 2018
Source ID
W911NF1510618

Entities

People

  • David DeMille

Organizations

  • Army Contracting Command
  • United States Army
  • Yale University

Tags

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Educational Psychology
  • Molecular Photonics/Laser Physics
  • Quantum spin resonance or Electron Paramagnetic Resonance spectroscopy.

Technology Areas

  • Directed Energy
  • Space
  • Space - Hall-Effect Thruster