Magnetic trapping of molecules via optical loading and magnetic slowing.
Calcium monofluoride (CaF) is magnetically slowed and trapped using optical pumping. Starting from a collisionally cooled slow beam, CaF with an initial velocity of ∼ 30 m/s is slowed via magnetic forces as it enters a 800 mK deep magnetic trap. Employing two-stage optical pumping, CaF is irreversibly loaded into the trap via two scattered photons. We observe a trap lifetime exceeding 500 ms limited by background collisions. This method paves the way for cooling and magnetic trapping of chemically diverse molecules without closed cycling transitions.
School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA and Harvard-MIT Center for Ultracold Atoms, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA.
Hsin-I
HI
Lu
Harvard-MIT Center for Ultracold Atoms, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA and Department of Physics, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA.
Ivan
I
Kozyryev
Harvard-MIT Center for Ultracold Atoms, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA and Department of Physics, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA.
Boerge
B
Hemmerling
Harvard-MIT Center for Ultracold Atoms, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA and Department of Physics, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA.
Julia
J
Piskorski
Harvard-MIT Center for Ultracold Atoms, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA and Department of Physics, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA.
John M
JM
Doyle