High Phase-Space Density of Laser-Cooled Molecules in an Optical Lattice

Wu, Yewei; Burau, Justin J.; Mehling, Kameron; Ye, Jun und Ding, Shiqian (2021): High Phase-Space Density of Laser-Cooled Molecules in an Optical Lattice. In: Physical Review Letters, Vol. 127, No. 26, 263201

Abstract

We report laser cooling and trapping of yttrium monoxide molecules in an optical lattice. We show that gray molasses cooling remains exceptionally efficient for yttrium monoxide molecules inside the lattice with a molecule temperature as low as 6.1(6) mu K. This approach has produced a trapped sample of 1200 molecules, with a peak spatial density of similar to 1.2 x 10(10) cm(-3), and a peak phase-space density of similar to 3.1 x 10(-6). By ramping down the lattice depth, we cool the molecules further to 1.0(2) mu K, 20 times colder than previously reported for laser-cooled molecules in a trap.

• Item Type: Journal article
• Faculties: Physics
• Subjects: 500 Science > 530 Physics
• ISSN: 0031-9007
• Language: English