LaserCooling

People

Post Docs

• Matthew Wright
• Boerge Hemmerling

Grad Students

• Garrett Drayna
• Eunmi Chae
• Aakash Ravi

Overview

Schematic in experimental plan for laser cooling of atoms and molecules

Two-stage cryogenic buffer-gas cooled beams are an excellent precursors to laser cooling experiments as the thermal velocities of the atoms or molecules being cooled are comparable to the depth of traps (e.g., magneto-optical traps) [1-2]. In molecular systems, the buffer-gas cooled beams are relevant as well because they quench internal degrees of freedom (e.g., rotational) and thus create a large number of molecules in the ground state. Recently, warm buffer-gas cooling techniques have been used to demonstrate the laser-cooling of a molecular species [3-4]. We are examining how to preform laser cooling of an atomic (Yb, Li) and molecular (CaF) beams from a slower two-stage cell design. Specifically, we are interested in using such a laser cooled beam to load traps.

References

• [1] Hsin-I Lu, Julia Rasmussen, Matthew J. Wright, Dave Patterson, and John M. Doyle. Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2011, DOI: 10.1039/c1cp21206k.
• [2] D. Patterson and J.M. Doyle. J of Chem Phys 126, 154307 (2007).
• [3] E. S. Shuman, J. F. Barry, D. R. Glenn, and D. DeMille, Phys. Rev. Lett. 103, 223001 (2009).
• [4] E. S. Shuman, J. F. Barry, and D. DeMille. Nature 467, 820 (2010).