Erlangen 2018 – scientific programme

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MO: Fachverband Molekülphysik

MO 17: Posters 2: Cold Molecules and Clusters

MO 17.5: Poster

Wednesday, March 7, 2018, 16:15–18:15, Orangerie

Towards Direct Laser Cooling of Barium Monofluoride — •Tobias Sixt, Lucas Hofer, Anna Gribbon, Tobias Reinsch, Ralf Albrecht, and Tim Langen — 5. Physikalisches Institut and Center for Integrated Quantum Science and Technology (IQST), Universität Stuttgart, Germany

We present a new experimental setup for the laser cooling and trapping of barium monofluoride molecules. Laser cooling of molecules had long been considered impossible due to their complex vibrational and rotational level structure. However, beneficial Franck-Condon factors and selection rules allow for optical cycling in many molecular species, including barium monofluoride. The molecules will be generated through laser ablation in cryostat and precooled by collisions with a 4K helium buffer gas. This results in a cold and intense beam that provides ideal starting conditions for transversal laser cooling, laser slowing and subsequent loading of a 3D magneto-optical trap. The resulting cold molecular gas will pave the way for a large number of novel and interdisciplinary applications ranging from few- and many-body physics to cold chemistry and tests of fundamental symmetries.