The 27th International Conference on Atomic Physics

Laser cooling Cd atoms and AlF molecules in the deep UV

18 Jul 2022, 17:00

1h 30m

Hart House (Hart House)

Poster presentation Degenerate gases, many-body physics, and quantum simulation Poster session

Description

We present our recent results on the fast loading of a dense magneto-optical trap (MOT) of Cd atoms from a pulsed cryogenic helium buffer gas beam. We can load more than ${10}^7$ atoms of each Cd isotope in less than 10 ms from a single atomic pulse and reach densities well above ${10}^{11}$ cm${}^{-3}$ by using the strong transition in the deep ultraviolet near 229 nm. The Cd MOT serves as a starting point for precise isotope shift measurements to search for new physics beyond the Standard Model of particle physics. In addition, Cd is an excellent species to test our MOT apparatus to cool the diatomic, polar and deeply bound molecule AlF using the strong A${}^1\mathrm{\Pi }\leftrightarrow$X${}^1{\mathrm{\Sigma }}^{+}$ transition near 227.5 nm. We demonstrate the efficient production of AlF, and the implementation of a simple and fast optical cycling scheme. As a first application, we reduce the transverse temperature of a molecular beam of AlF by using a blue-detuned optical molasses. Finally, we discuss the implementation of a Zeeman slower and a MOT for AlF.