Freiburg 2024 – scientific programme

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MO: Fachverband Molekülphysik

MO 6: Ultracold Molecules and Precision Spectroscopy (joint session MO/Q)

MO 6.1: Talk

Tuesday, March 12, 2024, 11:00–11:15, HS 3044

Laser cooling of Barium Monofluoride — •Sebastian Alejandro Morales Ramirez¹, Marian Rockenhäuser¹, Felix Kogel¹, Phillip Groß¹, Tatsam Garg¹, and Tim Langen^1,2 — ¹5. Physikalisches Institut, Universiäat Stuttgart, Pfaffenwaldring 57, 70569, Stuttgart, Germany — ²Atominstitut, TU Wien, Stadionallee 2, 1020 Vienna, Austria

Laser cooling of molecules has made remarkable progress over the last years, and a wide variety of molecular species from diatomics to polyatomics can now be routinely cooled. Recently, significant efforts have been made to add barium monofluoride (BaF) to the list of laser-coolable species, as this molecule shows great promise for various precision measurement applications and cold chemistry. Here, we report on the first experimental realization of Sisyphus cooling of such BaF molecules. Our progress is enabled by high resolution absorption spectroscopy of BaF's intricate level structure and a detailed modelling of the resulting cooling forces. In order further unterstand also the collisional properties of BaF, we perform simultaneous absorption spectroscopy of BaF and calcium monofluoride (CaF) molecules. This gives valuable insights into the thermalisation processes occuring inside a cryogenic buffer gas cell.

Keywords: Laser Cooling; Sisyphus Cooling; Spectroscopy; Thermalisation; Molecules