Zeeman-Sisyphus deceleration for heavy molecules with perturbed excited-state structure
Hiromitsu Sawaoka, Alexander Frenett, Abdullah Nasir +4 more
We demonstrate and characterize Zeeman-Sisyphus (ZS) deceleration of a beam of ytterbium monohydroxide. Our method uses a combination of large magnetic fields ($\ensuremath{\sim}2.5$ T) and optical spin-flip transitions to decelerate molecules while scattering only $\ensuremath{\sim}10$ photons per molecule. We study the challenges associated with the presence of internal molecular perturbations among the excited electronic states and discuss the methods used to overcome these challenges, including a modified ZS decelerator using microwave and optical transitions.
arXiv:2210.10859•Physical Review A•Feb 15, 2023•7 citations