中国物理B ›› 2016, Vol. 25 ›› Issue (5): 53701-053701.doi: 10.1088/1674-1056/25/5/053701

• SPECIAL TOPIC—Soft matter and biological physics (Review) • 上一篇    下一篇

Microwave-mediated magneto-optical trap for polar molecules

Dizhou Xie(谢笛舟), Wenhao Bu(卜文浩), Bo Yan(颜波)   

  1. Department of Physics, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China
  • 收稿日期:2015-12-18 修回日期:2016-01-12 出版日期:2016-05-05 发布日期:2016-05-05
  • 通讯作者: Bo Yan E-mail:yanbohang@zju.edu.cn
  • 基金资助:

    Project supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities of China.

Microwave-mediated magneto-optical trap for polar molecules

Dizhou Xie(谢笛舟), Wenhao Bu(卜文浩), Bo Yan(颜波)   

  1. Department of Physics, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China
  • Received:2015-12-18 Revised:2016-01-12 Online:2016-05-05 Published:2016-05-05
  • Contact: Bo Yan E-mail:yanbohang@zju.edu.cn
  • Supported by:

    Project supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities of China.

摘要:

Realizing a molecular magneto-optical trap has been a dream for cold molecular physicists for a long time. However, due to the complex energy levels and the small effective Lande g-factor of the excited states, the traditional magneto-optical trap (MOT) scheme does not work very well for polar molecules. One way to overcome this problem is the switching MOT, which requires very fast switching of both the magnetic field and the laser polarizations. Switching laser polarizations is relatively easy, but fast switching of the magnetic field is experimentally challenging. Here we propose an alternative approach, the microwave-mediated MOT, which requires a slight change of the current experimental setup to solve the problem. We calculate the MOT force and compare it with the traditional MOT and the switching MOT scheme. The results show that we can operate a good MOT with this simple setup.

关键词: laser cooling, cold molecules, microwave-mediated magneto-optical trap (MOT)

Abstract:

Realizing a molecular magneto-optical trap has been a dream for cold molecular physicists for a long time. However, due to the complex energy levels and the small effective Lande g-factor of the excited states, the traditional magneto-optical trap (MOT) scheme does not work very well for polar molecules. One way to overcome this problem is the switching MOT, which requires very fast switching of both the magnetic field and the laser polarizations. Switching laser polarizations is relatively easy, but fast switching of the magnetic field is experimentally challenging. Here we propose an alternative approach, the microwave-mediated MOT, which requires a slight change of the current experimental setup to solve the problem. We calculate the MOT force and compare it with the traditional MOT and the switching MOT scheme. The results show that we can operate a good MOT with this simple setup.

Key words: laser cooling, cold molecules, microwave-mediated magneto-optical trap (MOT)

中图分类号:  (Atom cooling methods)

  • 37.10.De
37.20.+j (Atomic and molecular beam sources and techniques)