Challenges of laser-cooling molecular ions

TL;DR

This paper reviews the challenges and requirements for laser cooling of molecular ions, identifies potential candidates, and performs detailed computational analysis to evaluate feasible cooling schemes and transition pathways.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive computational study of BH+ and AlH+ ions, assessing their suitability for laser cooling and proposing strategies for effective implementation.

Findings

BH+ and AlH+ are promising candidates for laser cooling.

Detailed transition rate calculations inform cooling scheme design.

Comparison of continuous-wave and pulsed laser approaches.

Abstract

The direct laser cooling of neutral diatomic molecules in molecular beams suggests that trapped molecular ions can also be laser cooled. The long storage time and spatial localization of trapped molecular ions provides the opportunity for multi-step cooling strategies, but also requires a careful consideration of rare molecular transitions. We briefly summarize the requirements that a diatomic molecule must meet for laser cooling, and we identify a few potential molecular ion candidates. We then perform a detailed computational study of the candidates BH+ and AlH+, including improved ab initio calculations of the electronic state potential energy surfaces and transition rates for rare dissociation events. Based on an analysis of population dynamics, we determine which transitions must be addressed for laser cooling and compare experimental schemes using continuous-wave and pulsed lasers