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Ultracold Molecules
Participants:
- John Doyle - PI
- Edem Tsikata - Graduate Student
- Hsin-I Lu - Graduate Student
Project Description:
The rich level structure of molecules make them more difficult to cool than atoms using laser cooling techniques. Because buffer gas cooling can be implemented to reach ultracold temperatures without relying on the particular internal degrees of freedom of the species being cooled, it presents an attractive alternative for molecular cooling.
We have demonstrated atomic/molecular beam loading of a buffer gas filled cell with Rb and the molecular radical NH and we have used the buffer gas technique to cool a dilute gas of CaH. We are currently working toward cooling and trapping NH from a molecular beam source in preparation for achieving degeneracy with evaporative cooling. Ultracold molecules present relatively unexplored territory, with many interesting prospects for future research, including tests of fundamental symmetries and quantum computation.
