Laser slowing of CaF molecules to near the capture velocity of a molecular MOT

Boerge Hemmerling, Eunmi Chae, Aakash Ravi, Loïc Anderegg, Garrett K. Drayna, Nicholas R. Hutzler, Alejandra Collopy, Jun Ye, John M. Doyle, Wolfgang Ketterle

Published Mar 1, 2016• 86 citations

OpenAlex

Abstract

Laser slowing of CaF molecules down to the capture velocity of a magneto-optical trap for molecules is achieved. Starting from a two-stage buffer gas beam source, we apply frequency-broadened 'white-light' slowing and observe approximately 6 x 10⁴ CaF molecules in a single pulse with velocities 10 ± 4 m s⁻¹. CaF is a candidate for collisional studies in the mK regime. This work represents a significant step towards magneto-optical trapping of CaF.

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Laser slowing of CaF molecules to near the capture velocity of a molecular MOT

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