Sub-Doppler Cooling and Compressed Trapping of YO Molecules at $mu$K Temperatures


Abstract in English

Complex molecular structure demands customized solutions to laser cooling by extending its general set of principles and practices. Yttrium monoxide (YO) has unique intramolecular interactions. The Fermi-contact interaction dominates over the spin-rotation coupling, resulting in two manifolds of closely spaced states, with one of them possessing a negligible Lande g-factor. This unique energy level structure favors dual-frequency DC magneto-optical trapping (MOT) and gray molasses cooling (GMC). We report exceptionally robust cooling of YO at 4 $mu$K over a wide range of laser intensity, detunings (one and two-photon), and magnetic field. The magnetic insensitivity enables the spatial compression of the molecular cloud by alternating GMC and MOT under the continuous operation of the quadrupole magnetic field. A combination of these techniques produces a laser-cooled molecular sample with the highest phase space density in free space.

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