Mainz 2017 – scientific programme

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MO: Fachverband Molekülphysik

MO 16: Posters 3: Experimental Techniques and Theoretical Approaches

MO 16.12: Poster

Thursday, March 9, 2017, 17:00–19:00, P OG1

Progress on a Zeeman Slower for Molecules — •Maurice Petzold, Paul Kaebert, Philipp Gersema, Mirco Siercke, and Silke Ospelkaus — IQO, Leibniz Universität Hannover, Hannover, Germany

Recently there has been great progress in laser cooling of molecules with quasi-diagonal Franck-Condon factors such as SrF CaF and YO. In particular, optical molasses, 2D- and 3D-magneto-optical traps have all been demonstrated. This is a tremendous step towards the creation of ultracold or even quantum degenerate samples of molecules via direct cooling techniques, extending the range of accessible molecules in the ultracold regime. Currently the molecule number in these traps is severely limited to ∼ 10³ due to the lack of high flux sources of molecules with velocities slow enough to be captured by magnetic or magneto-optical traps. Zeeman slowing, which is commonly used for atoms, is often thought to be impossible to implement for molecules due to the nature of the optical transitions used. Here we present a scheme of how to realize a Zeeman Slower for molecules. We simulate molecular trajectories emitted by a buffer gas cell and show that the slowing device provides significantly more flux of cold and slow molecules than other techniques used to date. The scheme is continuous and provides compression of the 1D-velocity distribution. We further report on progress on our demonstration experiment, which employs the proposed Zeeman slower scheme to Potassium atoms on the D1-line, an atomic system which exhibits many of the features and difficulties of molecular Zeeman slowing.