Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Log inSign up
Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Blog
Job Board
Q3AS

© 2026 Aqora Quantum S.A.S.

TermsPrivacyLegal Notice

Bulletin of the American Physical Society

Towards laser cooling and trapping of barium monohydride

Rees L. McNally, Geoffrey Z. Iwata, Marco G. Tarallo, Tanya Zelevinsky

Published Jun 6, 2017• 0 citations
OpenAlex

Related papers

Direct Laser Cooling of Metal Monohydride Molecules

Qi Sun, Sebastian Vazquez-Carson, Tanya Zelevinsky

Bulletin of the American Physical Society•Jun 3, 2021•0 citations

A buffer gas cooled beam of barium monohydride

Geoffrey Z. Iwata, Marco G. Tarallo, Tanya Zelevinsky

Bulletin of the American Physical Society•May 24, 2016•0 citations

A cryogenic buffer-gas cooled beam of barium monohydride for laser slowing, cooling, and trapping

Geoffrey Z. Iwata

Ultracold molecules promise a revolutionary test bed for quantum science with applications ranging from experiments that probe the nature of our universe, to hosting new platforms for quantum computing. Cooling and trapping molecules in the ultracold regime is the first step to unlocking the wide array of proposed applications, and developing these techniques to control molecules is a key but challenging research field. In this thesis, we describe progress towards a new apparatus designed to cool and trap barium monohydride (BaH), a molecule that is amenable to laser cooling and has prospects as a precursor for ultracold atomic hydrogen. The same complexity that makes molecules interesting objects of study creates challenges for optical control. To mitigate some of these challenges, we first cool the molecules using cryogenic techniques and technologies. Our apparatus uses a cryogenic buffer gas to thermalize BaH within a contained cell. The molecules are extracted into a beam with millikelvin transverse temperature, and forward velocities <100 m/s. The BaH beam in this work is the brightest hydride beam to date, with molecule density and kinetic characteristics well suited for laser cooling and trapping.

•Jan 1, 2018•2 citations

Optical cycling, radiative deflection and laser cooling of barium monohydride (138Ba1H)

Rees L. McNally, Ivan Kozyryev, Sebastian Vazquez-Carson +3 more

We present the first experimental demonstration of radiation pressure force deflection and direct laser cooling for barium monohydride (BaH) molecules resulting from multiple photon scattering. Despite a small recoil velocity (2.7 mm s −1 ) and a long excited state lifetime (137 ns), we use 1060 nm laser light exciting the X → A electronic transition of BaH to deflect a cryogenic buffer-gas beam and reduce its transverse velocity spread. Multiple experimental methods are employed to characterize the optical cycling dynamics and benchmark theoretical estimates based on rate equation models as well as solutions of the Lindblad master equation for the complete multilevel system. Broader implications for laser cooling and magneto-optical trapping of heavy-metal-containing molecules with narrow transition linewidths are presented. Our results pave the way for producing a new class of ultracold molecules—alkaline earth monohydrides—via direct laser cooling and trapping, opening the door to realizing a new method for delivering ultracold hydrogen atoms (Lane 2015 Phys . Rev . A 92 , 022511).

arXiv:2004.09570•New Journal of Physics•Jul 8, 2020•51 citations

Towards trapping and laser cooling Ba and La ions

Jessie Hankes, Amanda Nelson, Patrick Banner +1 more

Bulletin of the American Physical Society•Jun 8, 2017•0 citations

Toward laser cooling and trapping lanthanum ions

Steven Olmschenk, Patrick Banner, Jessie Hankes +1 more

Bulletin of the American Physical Society•Jun 9, 2017•0 citations
Ultracold molecules promise a revolutionary test bed for quantum science with applications ranging from experiments that probe the nature of our universe, to hosting new platforms for quantum computing. Cooling and trapping molecules in the ultracold regime is the first step to unlocking the wide array of proposed applications, and developing these techniques to control molecules is a key but challenging research field. In this thesis, we describe progress towards a new apparatus designed to cool and trap barium monohydride (BaH), a molecule that is amenable to laser cooling and has prospects as a precursor for ultracold atomic hydrogen. The same complexity that makes molecules interesting objects of study creates challenges for optical control. To mitigate some of these challenges, we first cool the molecules using cryogenic techniques and technologies. Our apparatus uses a cryogenic buffer gas to thermalize BaH within a contained cell. The molecules are extracted into a beam with millikelvin transverse temperature, and forward velocities <100 m/s. The BaH beam in this work is the brightest hydride beam to date, with molecule density and kinetic characteristics well suited for laser cooling and trapping.
We present the first experimental demonstration of radiation pressure force deflection and direct laser cooling for barium monohydride (BaH) molecules resulting from multiple photon scattering. Despite a small recoil velocity (2.7 mm s −1 ) and a long excited state lifetime (137 ns), we use 1060 nm laser light exciting the X → A electronic transition of BaH to deflect a cryogenic buffer-gas beam and reduce its transverse velocity spread. Multiple experimental methods are employed to characterize the optical cycling dynamics and benchmark theoretical estimates based on rate equation models as well as solutions of the Lindblad master equation for the complete multilevel system. Broader implications for laser cooling and magneto-optical trapping of heavy-metal-containing molecules with narrow transition linewidths are presented. Our results pave the way for producing a new class of ultracold molecules—alkaline earth monohydrides—via direct laser cooling and trapping, opening the door to realizing a new method for delivering ultracold hydrogen atoms (Lane 2015 Phys . Rev . A 92 , 022511).